Dharma Will Prevail With Good Karma

Why do people who do good suffer while those who commit injustice go unpunished? Such questions arise when we see an event in its limited framework. No good action will yield a bad result. Or, no bad action will bring a good result. This is the Law of Karma. As you sow, so shall you reap! If you sow a mango seed, a mango tree will grow. But along with the mango tree, some thorny bushes may come up because of the seeds present in the manure brought from somewhere else. It is not the mango seed that brings up the thorny bush. Your mango seed will bring mango fruit, in due course. The question of justice and injustice arises only when one sees the world from a limited framework. This is probably why the Jain philosophy does not even accept the judge. They simply believe that the whole world is governed by the law of cause and effect. And they call it the Law. When seen from this perspective, there cannot be injustice. If there appears to be an injustice, there are people who are bringing justice; this is also part of the Law. For example, if someone gets a disease, there is someone else who has the cure for it. If the person with the cure knows that somebody is suffering, it is his dharma to bring him relief. If it’s somebody’s karma to steal, it’s dharma of the police to catch him. Karma and dharma go hand in hand. Karma is always dynamic, in the sense that there is perception and there is action. Karma means the action, its impressions and its result. It has three phases — latent action, the action that is in process, and then the root of the action, or the cause of the action. All three things are a reality. Karma is beyond all logic and reasoning. It causes people to be together or separate. It causes some to be weak and some, strong. It makes some rich and some poor. All the struggle in the world, whatever it may be, is the bondage of karma. Some karma can be changed and some cannot. Only human life is blessed with the chance to be free from karma. And only a few thousands aim to be free from it. As a human being, you can accumulate karma. Awareness, alertness, knowledge and meditation all help erase past impressions. Only through Grace can the bondage of karma be burnt. The awareness of dharma helps in comprehending the strange ways of karma. Whenever you see a bad karma or someone suffering, you need to help him. That is your dharma. Karma is also always bound by time, because every action has a limited reaction. If you do something good to people, they will come and thank you; they will be grateful to you as long as they are experiencing the effect of your action, but not forever. Our perception of suffering, of good and bad, is always relative. God does not come within the purview of relativity. He is the absolute reality — Sarva Sakshi — a witness of all that is. See God as a movie director, rather than as a judge. He has no ill feeling for the villain, and no special favour for the hero. Each one is playing his role. In the end, both the villain and the hero are rewarded. That is why in the puranas, every villain who dies also goes to heaven. After so many years, when the Pandavas reached heaven, they found Duryodhana already sitting there happily.