The doctrine of Karma is misleading. | It failed to make this world a better place for everyone.

This concept came into existence when ancient people realized that to maintain the society they need something which might inspire people to perform good things and prohibit them from committing anything that affect the well-being of the society. So, they invented the doctrine of Karma. Karma determines whether we will go to the heaven or to the hell after our death.

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Every religion endorses this doctrine with some changes. It is not confined only to the Hindus, Buddhists or other Asian religions. Judaism, Christianity and Islam also follow this doctrine. Semitic religions attribute our sufferings to the sins of Adam and Eve when they didn’t obey the orders of God.

According to this doctrine everything that happens with us, everything what we receive and everything what makes us happy or sad are the results of our deeds. If you harm someone, you will also be harmed in return. If you help someone, you will also be helped by someone else. So, whatever you do to anyone, it will be returned back to you. So, your actions are everything. It determines your present and future. These actions can be called karma.

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It can be said that our deeds follow Newton’s third law of velocity i.e. every action has equal opposite reaction. If you hurt someone, you will also be hurt in return. if you are generous, your generosities will reward you someday. So, what goes around comes around. This is the essence of this doctrine.

One can never be free from karma until one attains the state of nirvana or moksha- the eternal peace. This doctrine also refers to the spiritual principle of cause and effect. In other words, the intent and actions of an individual influence the future of that individual even after his reincarnation or rebirth. Karma cannot be erased. They make an indelible impression on the future of the individuals. They follow us birth after birth. We get trapped in the vicious cycle of our deeds till the amount of our Karma is present. The doctrine of karma has been an integral part of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism and some other Asian religions including Taoism. Concept of heaven and hell in Semitic religions is also similar to the doctrine of Karma.

This doctrine propounds that whatever suffering one receives comes from the deeds of one’s past life. If someone is born with deficiencies, it must be the result of his/her past life’s sins. If someone is born in a socially low status or poor family, then it must be the result of his/her past life’s sins. Hence, its theory suggests that every action has a reaction, but the reaction takes time and the quantum of the reaction is always greater than the action.

So in a nutshell we can say that God punishes the sinners and rewards the good persons someday in their life and/or after their death by sending them to the hell or the heaven according to their karma. Our punishment and rewards don’t end with our death. We have to bear the burden of our deeds in our present life and if punishment is not sufficient, it will carry forward to the next life.

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I could not understand why God takes too much time to punish or reward a person.

Suppose a child has stolen her classmate’s pencil, and the teacher is aware of her action but do nothing at that time and decide to punish the child someday else. After a year or two, the teacher suddenly come to that child and starts slapping her but tells nothing. Do you think it is a wise action of the teacher? Should she had not forbidden the child from steeling when she was committing the crime? Will this punishment reform the spoiled child? Will it do anything for the betterment of that child or the society? You all will say that the action of the teacher was not right. Punishment should be immediate so that the sinner may realize his/her fault. If you punish someone after a long gap and don’t tell him about his misdeeds, it will only worsen the situation. Perhaps, that person may have reformed himself but the unexpected punishment will only deter him from becoming a good person. Perhaps, the need of punishment may have ended but the doctrine of Karma doesn’t think so. It keeps account of our deeds and punishes or rewards us even after we take the next births. Its motive always remains to punish us. It doesn’t believe in reforms of the sinners and small criminals. In fact it instigates people to commit more crimes as it never stops them from committing crimes and sins but it punishes them when they are not aware of their past deeds. It deter them from reforming.

Doctrine of Karma is mostly believed by Hindus whose society is widely infested by atrocities, injustices and exploitation. People in India believe that good deeds will increase their ‘punya’ (incentives for good deeds or accumulated reward points of good deeds) and the large amount of ‘punya’ will reduce or cancel their ‘paap’ (sins). According to them ‘punya’ can be earned by bathing in holy rivers, prayers in famous temples, alms to the big shrines, following religious rituals and feeding beggars, etc. But taking bribe, embezzlement of public funds, cheating, corruption, mistreatment with low class fellows, etc. are not a big problem for them because ‘paap’ earned from it can be reduced or eliminated by donating money before the gods’ idols. This is the reason that corrupt Indian businessmen are mostly ‘religious’. They offer a lot of money to the religious places but they seldom care for the benefit of the society. They never help miserable people. In fact they never fail to exploit hapless persons. You can realize yourself whether the doctrine of Karma has changed their mindset or has it made them insensitive towards the real sins.

Karma is the result of our past deeds and it may be taken as destiny. If everything is written well in advance, then we are not responsible for our deeds because our program made us to do whatever we did. And if we get bad treatment in life because of our past lives, then this punishment becomes irrelevant because there is no use of punishing someone when he has no idea of his mistakes or sins.

An example how people generalize everything to the karmas of the sufferers.

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Currently, in India Kerala state is suffering from one of the most devastating floods of the century that have wreck havoc over the the land of the gods’ own country. Many people are killed in this flood and billions of dollars worth things have been destroyed by the flood. People there are suffering a lot but some North Indians are saying that this flood is the result of beef eating in Kerala. According to them this was the God’s wrath upon them for being beef eaters. They said it is the result of Kerala people’s bad Karma. So, beef eating is sin for them but lynching of a human being by public is a good thing. What an irony of human mindset! Instead of helping people of Kerala, they are mocking over them and enjoying their sufferings. Is this not a sadistic mindset?

What a silly mindset is this? Beef is eaten in many parts of the world and billions of other animals were killed by humans since they came on this world. Is God only care for the cows and hate other animals? This is not so but what else can be said about the ignorant people whose mind has been spoiled by bad concept of Karma. If killing of animals could cause mankind to suffer, then the whole population of humans would have been killed by God for this sin much earlier. Should we not ask nature why it made some animals a food for other animals? Are we responsible for killing of animals and other living organism including plant? What should we do? Can we survive without harming any living creature? No, never. One animal is other animal's food and this is the reality. We have not created this system. Nature has created it so onus is on nature or God, not on us.

So, the theory of Karma has many flaws. It made people lazy, incompetent, fatalists, superstitious and indifferent towards the conditions of the downtrodden and hapless. The bad effect of it made people to doubt their every action. On account of it, they attributed everything bad to their past sins. Even it made them apathetic to the condition of the downtrodden and unfortunate people because they were certain that the cause of the suffering of these people were their own past sins. It divided the society and maintained the status quo. Poor and downtrodden are not ready to change their bad conditions as they think their sufferings are the results of their past life’s karmas which can change only if they suffer it making no complaint.

Hence, the doctrine of Karma was a nice theory but it could not stop the moral turpitude of the society. In fact, it exacerbated the situation in many places and instances, and has made people fatalists and apathetic to the conditions of the downtrodden and ill-fated individuals.

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Despite of its sincere efforts, the doctrine of Karma has its limitations. It cannot solve our every problem. In fact it has created many. Therefore, we need to base our society on more rational terms. We need to build a society where injustice, discrimination on caste, creed, color, ethnicity etc. are not present. This can be achieved only if people become educated, rational, logical and empathetic towards others. We need to respect nature and its laws. We need to get rid of our greed, arrogance, ignorance, prejudices, irrational behavior and lots of other bad things which prevent us from becoming a true human being.

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Thank you for reading.