How karmic debts are accounted for?

A kite flying in the sky drifts whenever there is air current moves from one way to other. The human life is also similar. None is aware how the life will move and in which direction? The thread is held by god, who tightens it sometimes and loosen the strings sometimes. Hence none is aware what will happen in the next moment. If you observe traffic on the roads, speeding vehicles seems like threat to other cyclists and pedestrians. But, in the neck of the moment, the vehicles steer past the obstacles without causing accidents. But it is not always the case. Sometimes, an erratic move by a vehicle in a busy thoroughfare will hit the vehicles to their right or left. It may be the mistake of the driver at the wheel. He might be drunk sometimes. Hence even if other motorists drive safely according to road rules, accidents do occur on the highways due to the error in judgement of the other drivers. Our life is almost similar. We may follow the rules of the state. We may be truthful and virtuous. But, there are many unruly and bad elements out everywhere. Unless we are careful and cautious, there is every opportunity that we may be at the receiving end.

There are three kinds of troubles faced by mankind. One is due to the forces of nature like floods and cyclones. The other is caused by the rulers who become utterly selfish and rule the states in autocratic fashion. The third one is caused by thieves, animals and poisonous creatures. Hence, from the moment of birth to the moment of death, man undergoes multitudes of grief and pain caused by external elements. But the root cause of all this sorrow is deep attachment to the body which gives rise to the ego. Most of us are unaware that we are not the bodies. Body is just a dress of the soul. When the body becomes decrepit and weak, the soul may relinquish the particular body and seek a new body to work out the effects of the past deeds.

It is still a wonder, how god keeps the accounts of each individual perfectly and dispenses the effects in instalments? There is no miscalculation or misjudgment. Humans are prone to errors but not god. Sometimes even computers may crash losing the saved data. But in god’s domain, there is no such mishap at all. I will give a small example. One person borrows a sum from other as loan. He might have returned a part of the loan. But before the entire loan is repaid, the borrower dies leaving dues to the lender. As per Hindu philosophical scriptures, the borrower will take birth in a new scenario and the lender will also take birth in the same family as the son or daughter of the borrower, realize their dues without knowing that the father is indebted to them. Sometimes, it may be some other relative who forcefully collect the amounts due without any knowledge of the past. Sometimes, one suddenly get a lottery or become owners to some estates since some distant relative has bequeathed the property in the name of surviving relatives. On the face of it, the incident may seem a sheer luck but it is not so. When you get even one rupee from unknown sources, it is only past due.

Not only money, many people serve their masters with physical labor and the master may not pay them fully. The reason is evident. In some previous birth, the master was our servant and we have unduly extracted work from them without compensating them their dues. God’s ways are really mysterious. Hence everyone has to pay back in the same coin, what he has usurped illegally or otherwise. Another example, someone quarrels with some other and in the process, the other one is got killed. The killer may escape the rule of law by hiding till his death. But god metes out the punishment in a future birth. The one who is killed avenges his death without knowing by murdering the one who killed him. Likewise, the cause and effect theory won’t leave us even if we flee to the four corners of the world. We have heard or seen in the media that many migrant laborers to other countries are ill-treated by their employees and in some cases some cruel punishment is meted out to the laborers. Outwardly, it may seem that it is a severe human right issue. But the fact is that there are unsettled dues between the laborers and their employees in their previous incarnations!

In Sai Sath Charita, the biography of Saibaba, a peculiar story about a tiger is mentioned in the end. There were few people who kept a tiger in a cage and showing it in the villages, collecting some fees. One fine morning, the tiger become terribly ill and is about to die. The keepers brought the tiger to the physical presence of Saibaba after getting his approval. The tiger was brought in and it was looking at the eyes of Saibaba. Baba too looked at the tiger and immediately, the tiger waged its tail thrice hitting the steps and fell down died. There is an important reason for this. The tiger was a debtor to the keepers in the past births. When all the dues were cleared, it left them by way of death!

In human accounting systems, credits nullify the debits and ultimate balance is obtained as it is vogue in banking and financial sectors. But karmic accounting differs. For each bad deed, we have to suffer separately and for each merit, we will reap joy or pleasure according to the quantum of merit.

Knowing this, one should do good deeds and act truly and righteously. The more we render service to the needy, our accounts gets cleared quickly. More than prayers, service is the best way to repay our debts to the society! One more doubt may occur in the minds of readers as to how god keeps tag of our deeds? Every little thought, feeling or emotion is instantly recorded in our subconscious mind. Every bad deed we undertake is duly recorded there like good deeds. Once death snatches the last breath, the mind accompanies the last breath to the next destination (next birth). As per the overall effects of good and bad, some quantity is selected for a particular birth for redressal. Hence everyone has to take births after birth till they settle all their dues. Ultimately we must become zeros, i.e. Without any balance either plus or minus!