Theos-Talk Archives (January 2003 Message tt00288)

Bhakti Ananda Goswami wrote:
> BA G AS FOR MY OWN PROBLEMS, ALL OF MY ADULT LIFE I HAVE BEEN 
> SURROUNDED BY HINDUS WHO THINK THAT ALL OF MY PHYSICAL AFFLICTIONS ARE 
> DUE TO MY BAD KARMA, BUT I HAVE NOT TRIED TO HIDE THAT I AM AFFLICTED 
> ON THIS SITE, WHERE THIS FACT WILL CERTAINLY BRING ME MORE BAD-KARMA 
> JUDGEMENT FROM THE THEOSOPHICAL BAD-KARMA DETECTORS.

Your case is a good example of karma as a weapon for oppression, and
karma as, well at least as I and many other occultists see it, really
is. Karma IS a form of justice, but natural justice, not human justice. 

Consider the following case: A hiker is wandering alone in the forest,
reading a book. He does not notice a ditch, and therefore falls in,
breaking both legs. He cannot climb out, and dies slowly and horribly of
thirst and exposure. A human might say, "Reading a book should not carry
with it the death penalty." And, it is true, by human standards of
justice, the penalty was far worse than the crime. But, by natural
justice, the hiker was, in fact, responsible for what happened to him. 

People would like to think that if they do good things, good will
return to them, and if they do bad things, then bad will return to them.
But that is not the way karma works. In the New Testament, it is made
clear that Jesus was supposed to be crucified; it was in his karma. Yet
Judas is damned for betraying him. And herein lies the lesson which has
been ignored so much, even by the followers of Jesus: Even if a person
has karma coming to him does not relieve you of karma should you decide
to be the agent of karma. Add on to this that there is no way a normal
human can perceive karma (except in the most direct cases, such as if
you put your hand in a fire, you get burned), and the concept that one
can be an agent of karma is even more ridiculous.

Yet karma, in one form or another, has been treated as if it were human
justice, and humans have used it as an excuse for oppression, even if
they don't use the same terms. My wife used to work with brain injured
children. She was told by parents of one child that they were traveling
through a rural area. They checked into a small hotel, where they were
treated with great hospitality; that is, until the owner noticed that
the child was handicapped. They were immediately thrown out of the
hotel, told, "Nice people do NOT have children like that!!!!"

Bart