WHY DO GOOD PEOPLE SUFFER?
"Why do good people suffer?" The very fact, so many people have gathered here today, is sufficient proof of our interest in the subject. Almost at every place, where I go, in India or abroad, people put to me the question: "Why do good people suffer?"
The story is almost the same everywhere. The people say: "We have been honest and hard working: we have not hurt or exploited anyone: we have done as much good as we could: and yet we have had to suffer. What is the reason?"
I am reminded of a young man. He built up a flourishing business in Mumbai. Then he turned his attention to spiritual things. He, as it were, handed over his business to his assistants, whom he trusted implicitly. They proved to be dishonest. Very soon, this young man found himself in a difficult situation. He was on the verge of bankruptcy. Winding up hi9s business, he went to America, where he opened a shop. Misfortune dogged his footsteps. One afternoon, two black men entered his shop with pistol in their hands. One of them caught hold of him and said: "If you stir or utter a word, you will not be alive!" The other ransacked the shop and filled the booty in a waiting van and, before any action could be taken, the two quickly vanished.
In the course of a letter this young man wrote to me: "Why did this happen to me? I pray many times everyday. I seek God's help and protection. Every morning, as I get up, I offer a prayer: I spend some time in quiet meditation. Before I open the shop, I pray. Throughout the day I keep thinking of God and offer small prayers to Him. I pray again in night, before I go to sleep. I have hurt no one: I have cheated no one. I have never been dishonest. Why, of all people, did this happen to me?"
I think of a young woman. She stays in Singapore. She is God fearing. She is an active member of a Yoga Society. Some months ago, she came to India, along with her family members. They visited a number of sacred shrines. They met holy men and sought their blessings. Then they returned to Singapore. A few days thereafter, their office premises were gutted by fire, and precious documents were destroyed. The girl, with tear filled eyes exclaimed: "Why is it that this happened to us? We visited India in a spirit of reverence, sought the blessings of a number of holy men and women. Why did this happen to us!"
I read concerning a woman. She went round the world collecting rare and precious antiques. After six laborious years, she returned to her country where she planned to start business in antiques. A week before the inaugural function, a fire broke out, and a number of shops including her own were destroyed. Her hard work of six long years proved futile. Her priceless collections, her irreplaceable curios, were reduced to ashes! No insurance claim could compensate her adequately. She put the same question: "Why did the All-Merciful God permit this to happen to me?"
Let me tell you of another woman. She devoted the best part of her life to social service. She was by nature affable, amiable, energetic, and vivacious. She went out of her way to bring joy and comfort into the lives of many. Suddenly, one day, she found herself losing balance as she walked. A few days later, as she returned home, one night, she stumbled and fell across the threshold of her house. The next day she was examined by a doctor, who, after a thorough check up, diagnosed the disease as multiple sclerosis. She was told that it was a degenerative nerve-disease which, with passage of time, would gather momentum and restrict her mobility. Ultimately, she would not be able to walk without support and she would be confined to a wheel-chair. She might even lose bowel and bladder control and be dependent on others for her routine chores. This lady too, could not understand why this had happened to her, when many of her friends lived normal, healthy lives. "Why did God permit this to happen to me?" she asked.
Some people believe that there are certain obligations they owe to God, and if they fail to fulfill them, they or their dear ones are punished. One such woman met me when I visited Ottawa, Canada. She told me that she recited the second, twelfth and eighteenth chapters of the Bhagavad Gita every day, before taking her lunch. She observed, also, the Satyanarayan fast, every month. But during a whole month, she missed out on the recitation and the fast. The day after Satyanarayan her husband, who was perfectly healthy and normal, suffered a stroke, and has remained paralysed since then. The woman put me the question that was uppermost in her mind: "Has this anything to do with my failure to read from the scriptures and observe the fast? Is there any cause and effect relationship between the two?"
I think of a young man. He was the only son of his parents, who are good and kind, and obliging by nature. With his pleasant manners, the young man easily won over the hearts of many who knew him. One night, the car in which he was returning home, collided against a truck, killing him and three of his other friends. When the news was conveyed to his parents, they cried: "Why did the Merciful Lord allow this happen to us? Why was our only son snatched away from us?"
A learned Rabbi has written a book titled, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. In this book the Rabbi narrates how his three year old son was afflicted with an incurable disease called Progeria. The effect of this disease, he was told, would be that the boy would not grow taller than three feet, would remain bald, and would age rapidly. Even as a child, he would have the appearance of an old man! Naturally, the father was grief-stricken. "Why has God permitted an innocent child to become the victim of such a disease? He asked. "He has hurt or harmed no one. Why has he been exposed to physical and psychological torture?" The author considers several similar cases and concludes that God is not omnipotent, as we believe Him to be. God has limited power. Within those limitations God can exercise His discretion. But there are forces over which He has no control. If those forces operate, God has no way of helping you out.
Dr. Anne Besant, the founder of the Theosophical Society gave birth to a child who, during his infancy, suffered from convulsions. Suddenly, the fever would shoot up and the infant would have a series of fits. The suffering of the infant was more than the mother could bear. She was at a total loss to understand how the All-Loving, All-Merciful, All-Compassionate God had inflicted so much suffering on a harmless, guileless and perfectly innocent baby. She turned an agnostic and said that she was not sure if there was a God.
She worked on the staff of "The New Review". One day, she was asked to review 'The Secret Doctrine' by Madame H.B. Blavatsky. As she went through this book, she came upon a chapter on Karma and Reincarnation. She read line after line of this chapter with deepening interest and a new awakening dawned on her. She began to understand that the present was not the only life that she or her child had lived; it was but one of the innumerable lives they had lived so far. The present life was but a fragment in the continuity of existence and, therefore what an individual suffered today could be the product of what he (or she) had done in an earlier incarnation. The mystery was unravelled. Her entire attitude towards life changed.
The answer to the opt-repeated question, "Why do good people suffer?" becomes clear when we understand the operation of the law of karma and re-incarnation. The law of karma is the law of cause and effect. Every effect must have a cause. The effect we see now must have a cause, recent or remote. Whatever happens to me today has a cause behind it.
Question: What is the concrete proof for this?
Answer: You will get concrete proof when you practice silence and enter the depths within you. The meaning of the mystery of the endless adventure of existence is there within you. As you enter into the depths within, the mystery is unravelled.
Question: Can you give us some concrete example?
Answer: An example has been given in the Mahabharata. It concerns the blind King Dhritarashtra. After the Mahabharata war was over, Sri Krishna said to Pandavas and Kauravas and all others: "It is time for me to return to Dwaraka. But before I leave, tell me if there is anything I can do for you?" The blind King Dhritarashtra said to him: "I have bee good to everyone: I have not been cruel or unjust to anyone. Why is it that I am blind and have lost all my hundred children?" And Sri Krishna said to him: "I would wish you to get the answer for yourself. Meditate, go deep within yourself until you touch the astral self, and you will know!"
Dhritarashtra entered into deep meditation and contacted his astral self. The astral self keeps a record of our earlier incarnations. Dhritarashtra discovered that in an earlier incarnation, he had been a tyrant king. One day as he walked by a lake side, he saw a swan-bird surrounded by a hundred signets. He asked his people to remove the eyes of the swan-bird and kill all the hundred signets just to please his passing fancy! He then understood why he was blind and had to suffer the loss of his hundred sons.
Question: But isn't that a very lengthy process of getting to know?
Answer: It is well worth it. You do not acquire a post graduate degree overnight. You have to put in years of study. Just as there is the science of nature, so also there is the science of the spirit.
The rishis of ancient India called it Atmavidya. Vidya means science. As natural sciences have their laws, so does Atmavidya, - the science of the spirit, - have its laws. One of those laws is the law of karma; another is the law of re-incarnation.
Question: Could you explain this law of karma?
Answer: The law of karma, simply stated, is the law of cause and effect. My Beloved Master referred to the law of karma as the law of the seed. As you sow, so shall you reap. You cannot sow thrones and reap apples. The law of karma is universal in its application: it applies equally to all. We are sowing seeds everyday in the field of life. Every thought that I think, every word that I utter, every deed I perform, every emotion I arouse within me, every feeling, fancy, wish that awakens within me, are seeds I am sowing in the field of life. In due course, the seeds will germinate and grow into trees, and yield fruit, - bitter or sweet, - which I shall have to eat. No one else can do that for me. There are causes that produce their effect immediately. There are other causes that produce their effect after a long time. As an example, if you go to a party and overeat, it is a cause you have created. This cause produces an immediate effect, - acute indigestion. There are other causes which take very long to produce their effect. But every cause must produce its effect; every seed must yield its fruit. This in simple words is the law of karma.
We are told, all men are created equal. No one can be so blind or foolish as to imagine that there is actual equality of ability or environment or conditions of birth for all. Why, in the same family, all children do not have equality of ability or intelligence. There is a family of which the eldest son is an IAS officer and the younger is unable to pass the SSC examination. We have a proverb in Sindhi which says: "The mother gives birth to children, each brings with himself his destiny." In other words, each one brings his karma with himself. There is a family of which youngest son is a multi millionaire, while the eldest is so poor that he and his children are virtually starving, literally begging for food.
Two questions arise:
1. Is this inequality the result of karma?
2. And if so, is it fair?
The answer to both, - as the great teachers of India have taught us, - is in the affirmative. You are the architect of your own destiny. You are the builder of your own life. Every thought, emotion, wish, action creates karma: and we have been creating karma for thousands, perhaps millions of years. If our thoughts, emotions and actions are benevolent, so called good karma results. If they are malevolent, evil or difficult karma is created. The good or evil we generate attaches its effect to us and remains in our life current until we have satisfied it by balancing it out.
Question: Why is our past karma kept a secret from us?
Answer: Don't you think it is a great mercy of God that our karmic links are not known t o us> Else, it may be difficult for us to live in the world. Thus, for instance, there may be a man whose wife, in the present incarnation, was his bitter enemy in an earlier incarnation and had now become his wife only to settle previous accounts. If all this were revealed to us, what would be our condition?
Question: How did bad karma originate?
Answer: Man was given free will; he was given the right of choice. He can choose between what the Upanishads call preya and shreya. Preya is the pleasant: the path of preya is the path of pleasure that lures us but leads to our degradation. As a Danish proverb has it: "After pleasant scratching comes unpleasant smarting." Shreya is the good: the path of shreya may, at first, be difficult to tread but ultimately leads to our betterment and well-being and spiritual unfoldment. At every step man is given this choice. Many of us, alas, choose the easy path, -the path of pleasure, - and so keep on multiplying undesirable karma.
Question: If all that happens today is the result of our past karmas, does it mean that everything is pre-destined?
Answer: No, certainly not! We are the architects of our own destiny. We are the builders of our future. Many of us blame fate, kismet for our misfortune. But let me tell you, dear friends, that you are the builders of your own fate. Therefore, be careful especially of your thoughts. We pay scant attention to our thoughts, believing that they are of no consequence. We say, after all, it was only a thought, what does it matter? Every thought is a seed you are sowing in the field of life, and what you sow today, you will have to reap tomorrow.
God has created a universe of beauty, fullness, happiness and harmony. Each one of us is a child of God. God wishes each one of us to be happy, healthy, prosperous, successful and to enjoy all the good things He has created. We keep ourselves away from all those bounties because of our karma. Change your karma and you will change the conditions in which you live. And you can change your karma by adopting a new pattern of thinking.
Question: Can karmas be wiped off by japa?
Answer: It is believed that the effects of karma can be mitigated through nama japa. In any case, the suffering can be reduced, because nama japa acts as a sort of chloroform. It is like going through an operation. The surgeon puts you under anesthesia and you come out of the operation without feeling the acute pain. Else the pain is so excruciating, that a person could die of it. This is what Nama Japa does to you.
Question: Can saints take over the karma of their disciples?
Answer: They can. However, normally, they do not wish to interfere with the law of karma. For they know that the law of karma is not punitive but reformative. The law of karma does not wish to punish us for what we may have done in the past. The law of karma wishes to reform us and so sends us experiences which may help on our spiritual advancement. It is true there have been cases when men of God have taken the karmas of their devotees upon themselves. It is like having birds released from their cages. A man may purchase the birds and set them free. Likewise, a man who is rich in the wealth of the Spirit may, if he so desires, pay for our karma and released us from the cage of maya.
Question: Tell us how to face suffering?
Answer: If our attention is on suffering they get magnified beyond all proportions. In the midst of suffering let us count our blessings. Usually, we suffer only in one area of our life. There are so many other things for which we should be grateful. Take a piece of paper and make a list of all the blessings you still have. There was a man who started from scratch and build up a flourishing business and one day become bankrupt. The first thing he did was to take up a piece of paper and write down all the things he still possessed. He found, he still had a great deal to be thankful for. With gratitude in his heart, he started anew and built up a still larger business. If we count on our blessings, our suffering recedes in the background.
In all conditions of life, let us thank the Lord. Let us make it a habit, - to praise the Lord at every step, in every round of life. Even in the midst of fear and frustration, worry and anxiety, depression and disappointment, let these words come out of the very depths of our hearts: "Thank you, God! Thank you, God!" and we will be filled with a peace that will amaze us. When we thank the Lord all the time, we build for ourselves a ladder of consciousness on which we can climb and touch the very pinnacle of peace.
Let me tell you the story of a woman. Her husband fell seriously ill. The doctors dispaired of his condition and said he would not be able to last longer than six months. The woman had deep faith in God and started thanking the Lord a thousand times everyday. "Thank you, God! Thank you, God!" she prayed again and again. "Thank you, God, for having healed my husband and made him whole." She continued to offer his prayer even though there was no sign of healing in sight. Strange enough, a few months later, when the husband went for a check up, the doctors were amazed at his miraculous recovery. "A power above and beyond ours has been at work!" they exclaimed.
Whatever be the condition in which you find yourself, whatever be the suffering through which you pass, keep on thinking the Lord all the time. When you do so, your heart expands and you become receptive to the helpful and healing forces of God.
In every situation, do the very best you can and leave the result to the Lord. When Henry Ford was seventy-five years old, he was asked the secret of his success. He answered: "My life is built in these three rules. I do not eat too much, I do not worry too much and, if I do my best, I believe that what happens happens for the best."
(Author: Sri J. P. Vaswani)
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