How the laws of retribution works in human life?

“To err is human, to forgive is Divine”, this is applicable under normal circumstances. To err repeatedly, knowing well that it is a mistake, cannot be condoned as such. This is what is happening at present in the world scenario! Majority of political leaders around the world repeat their mistakes without any ‘conscious prick! How can we expect God to condone such irrational behavior of the leaders? Sadly, the citizens are punished for the mistakes committed by their leaders!

Sometimes, it so happens that the teacher punishes the entire class for some mistake committed by some student. Outwardly, the punishment may look harsh but this sort of mass punishment has a salutation effect on the bad guys. I would like to give one example. When soothsayers predicted the birth of Divine child to the King, he was outraged and ordered all new born babies in the land should be killed. The same event happened when Krishna was born and brought up in Gokul. The demon king who knew that his death will be met out at the hands of Krishna tried various ways to finish him. He has sent many ogres to kill the baby. When he first heard that the child is already born and is brought up in Gokulam, he ordered his men to kill all the babies in the place! History repeats itself. In fact, Jesus counselled many on the laws of Divine but none cared to listen except the poor destitute on the street. They heard him, believed in him and got great benefits from him. For the treason of one person or rather a group of persons, an entire race suffered untold miseries at the hands of a cruel dictator.

It is written in scriptures that ‘even if there is one good person, rain falls for his sake which benefits the entire community in an area. In a similar manner, the crime of a single individual against a noble soul affects the entire community! Whether we believe in these doctrines or not, things happen as decreed by laws of Dharma or righteousness. It is sad that in spite of voluminous literature available on the net on various religious texts and the teachings of the sages, most of the people follow the whims of their mind.

Hence, transformation must take place from within and not from without. Any external coercion may not make any effect unless the individual willingly follow the code of conduct prescribed by the religions. In matters of spirit, the progress will be negligible and cannot be assessed. It is easy to slide down in quick falls but to raise step by step is a tedious process. When one slips and falls, the injury may be visible to the eye. But injuries to the soul due to accumulations of evil habits and deeds could not be gauged. The reasons for the gory scenes around the world we witness in the media are the accumulated effects of all evil done by many without any guilty feeling. If I hit the table hard, the table would have dealt the same force of hit to my hand. When this is the case with physical objects, what about the repercussions in spiritual path? But the scriptures are very clear about the reactions, reflections and resound for all actions of man, whether they commit good deeds or bad deeds? If there is a placid lake inside deep forest, whose surface is still, any pebble thrown on the surface will form ripples. In a similar way, whether we indulge in bad deeds or perform good deeds, each such deed creates an equal reaction.

There is only one way to escape from the reactions! Perform your duty and leave the result to god! If we observe water drops on the lotus leaf, they won’t wet the leaf but roll here and there like pearls. One must live in this world like a drop of water on the lotus leaf without any attachment to the mundane world or wealth or relationships. Performing our duties without any attachment, enable us to escape from this miserable prison individuality. We all consider ourselves as the body/mind complex and feel pain and grief when the body is affected by ill health or if the body suffers any cut or bruises. We are quite aware that the body will perish one day, if not sooner, later. None in this world is immortal except the inner Self. Bodies are born and die but the Self within is immortal. This is the fundamental truth about human life. This could be explained by an example. There are number of pots kept in the open which contain water. When the Sun shines, the reflections are seen in each pot. Each such reflection is a full image and not a part. In a similar way, the bodies may be compared to mud pots in which the Atma is reflected in the conscious. Hence all living beings are embodiments of the Self.

All religions assert that the Soul is deathless. Every day after bath, we wear fresh dresses. We discard the soiled dresses. In a similar way, the Atma don the body. When the body become worn out or affected by prolonged illness, the Atma will relinquish the present body and chose a new body. Soul was there before our birth and Soul will remain after the death of the body. But the good and bad deeds performed by us wait to give results if not in this birth, in a future birth. Hence none can escape the effects of their past deeds. The Atma is capable of choosing an appropriate vehicle to work out the balance karma attached to the soul. Today we talk about super computers which are of enormous capacity to perform trillions of tasks in a second. Imagine the capacity of the Soul or Atma! It watches each individual soul, record their feelings, thoughts and actions and make appropriate entries in the record. These recordings are not erased even if we take much number of births. Each such feeling or thought or action waits to strike us back in an appropriate manner in the future birth. All dues are settled in future births if not in a particular birth. The creditors will take birth as sons or daughters and we would be paying back without knowing that we have taken money from them in the previous births. Hence there is no resentment since we are spending for the sake of children! This is how retributions takes place in the world!