Q: Why should I be affected because I did something in the past life or some time in 10 lifetime’s back?
Let us continue contemplation on karma. Why should I be affected because I did something in the past life or some time in 10 lifetime’s back? It will be good if the results come immediately.
There is one story in Mahabharata where Dhritharastra, the blind king had 100 children who got killed in the war of Mahabharata. Dhritharastra asked Sri Krishna, “Why my 100 children got killed? Why should I suffer like this?”. Sri Krishna says, “50 lifetimes back, you killed 100 siblings of a bird and the parents of the bird cursed you”. Dhritharastra says, “why should I wait 50 lifetimes for getting the result of that now?” Sri Krishna says, “Okay! The law of karma is fair. It puts you in the same circumstances as you did something to somebody. So, to experience the law of karma, experience the effect or impact of karma, you have to have 100 children. But, to have 100 children, you did not have some good merit. So, the good merit you have to accumulate in 50 lifetimes so that you have 100 children now. And the effect of bad karma has to be implemented now”.
You will have to wait for the right circumstance. So, the law of karma is not a mechanical law. It is not a mechanical justice system. It gives you, puts you in a space and opportunity, which reciprocates what you did. You have to experience a similar circumstance, for which it takes time. It takes many lifetimes to experience it.
So, it’s only human justice where if you did some mistake, immediately justice can be punished. But the punishment will not be equivalent. For e.g.: Somebody killed somebody. The judge says, “You killed somebody” and puts you in jail. That is the legal system. Justice may be immediate, after 5 years, after 10 years and punishment goes. But what is not punished here is, the victim has undergone the same trauma or turmoil. The judge cannot recreate that. The law of karma recreates that for you, for which you have to wait, and the victim has to be given an opportunity, to bring you to that situation, for which many lifetimes will happen. And also understand, from a human point of view, a lifetime of 70-80 years is a big thing. From the cosmic point of view, a couple of million years is not a big thing. You may say “No! No! No!” 50 lifetimes’ earlier, in the cosmic scale, in the God’s scale, it is nothing.
I will just tell you a small story. One smart person meditated. God stood in front of him and says “Oh child! I am pleased with you. Tell me what you want?” This child is a very smart guy. Probably some graduate from top-ranking institutions. He said, “God! My 1 billion dollars means how much for you in your currency?” God says, “1 cent in my currency”. This guy smartly says, “God please grant me 1 billion dollars in your currency”. God says “Tathastu! [Grants the wish], wait for a second”. And 1 second of God is a billion years in this guy’s time. So, whatever is that we try to take the scale of the human mind and try to fit events into a cosmic scale and vice versa.
Pranams
References:
SK 14.2
SelfKnowledge Talks_T14_KARMA (2.Why not immediate results?)_11Apr2016