In the face of suffering, having done all that is possible in their means, only then do some turn towards God. God comes into existence for them only then, for they had held to their might and strength that they were in control before. When some are pointed to the Siddhas and their Nadi, they come to know about their past karma as its cause and how it has brought untold sufferings on them in this life. They tend to ask if there is no free will and everything was determined beforehand or predetermined? They get this impression since the Nadi has all the answers. It is as if everything was foretold in the stars. Are we then victims of fate and destiny, they ask? How much has fate and destiny a hand in our lives then? They begin to question or rather condemn God and his laws for being unfair and unjust. They ask why should I be punished for something I did in a past life?
Know that the divine laws are justified. God never errs. We need to look back and travel back to our habits and lifestyle, for instance. We had free will and a choice as to adopt the kind of food, whether we wanted to exercise or not, whether to associate with others and keep them company or stay away, etc. Live offers us choices at every moment. We never stood before God asking him what we should do. God never came into the picture. He was merely a picture framed up at our altar. Even if we stood before him our prayer would be to bless our endeavor, the start of a new business or venture, etc. Here we made decisions and want God to partner with us. In the event something goes wrong, we can always push the responsibility of making a wrong choice on him instead of accepting that we made a wrong choice or decision, etc. We do not own up to our mistakes or misjudgments but blame God.
Then there are those who are very careful of the choices they make, the association they keep and take care of their health but suffer or suddenly drop dead too. A lady wrote to a local daily after her husband's demise stating that she could not accept his death as he was careful with his diet, went jogging each day, did Yoga, etc. She was asking how could he die? Many including my uncle are known to collapse while jogging. But we have to be grateful, as I was, that my father too was healthy till the very last minute of their lives. He did not suffer. Good health, till we take the last breath, is a boon. Life after 60, is a boon. Many come to me complaining about their ailments. But they fail to understand that as they age, their health fails them unless they take the necessary steps to keep fit and observe a proper diet. They do not do that, falling victim to the pleasures of the senses and eventually complaining that all is not right. My prayer is to be healthy and die healthy, not to be bedridden and dependent on others even for the very basic needs.
We need to appreciate and be grateful. Man goes from guru to guru, ashram to ashram, seeking numerous mantras that can bring health and wealth upon him. I believe the greatest mantra is that of thanksgiving to the Almighty for an opportunity to take a human birth that the saints deem rare, for a perfect body, for us to come to know about karma and giving us solutions, the means and the way and all the goodies that come our way or that we pile up and even to accept the brickbats thrown at us. Be grateful for the company we keep with, making sure that it does not pull us further away from the path that we have adopted. This path is made known to us by the Atma. It brings us into the path and brings us to the gurus on the path. Let not others divert our journey.
To the question as to why am I punished for something that I did in a past birth, we have to look past the events and see the teachings and learning. We learn then that if we want to stay away from what we are undergoing in this birth, the only way is to lead a righteous life in the present so that in the next birth if we are opportune to read the Nadi again, the Siddhas won't run through the same text listing our karma. Our slate will be clean then. Tavayogi says it beautifully in one of his talks. What we are in this birth is a result of our former birth. What we shall be in the next birth is determined by this birth. Bringing it within our limited scope of thinking we can deduce that what we are today is the result of yesterday. What we are going to be tomorrow is a result of today. Hence we can change our future if we conduct ourselves well today.
We might be able to change our past by many means or we might not be able to stop, defer, change some other happenings if the imprint of our past karma is too deep. Let those stubborn karma be. But we can surely make good use of the present moment to have the Prapanjam deliver a good verdict for us in the next.
Speaking about verdict, I just finished watching the movie "Jai Bhim". Though I could not stomach the brutality and the caste discrimination I watched it till the end. This movie shall help open the eyes of many to begin to see another as a fellow human being and not treat them like an animal or outcasts. But seeing the notes at the end of the movie I was saddened that though much has been done by an individual to bring changes to the system some bad apples, sectors, and things still do pursue, persist, resist or refuse to change.
I saw discrimination before my eyes in the Holy town of Thiruvannamalai when I was there in 2003. I had just come out of the hotel to make my way to the Annamalaiyar temple that morning. As businesses were opening up for the day, a clean and well-dressed man in a white shirt and dhoti, with the sacred ash on his forehead, whom I presume to be the owner of a shop lot, was poking a vagrant sleeping on the floor in front of his shop with his walking stick, using harsh words to wake him up. He seemed to forget that Annamalaiyar was witness to his action. Then back in Malaysia, as I was walking down the corridors of the shop lots a similar situation materialize before my eyes. The Chinese man whom I presume was the shop owner, raise one of the shutters to his shop to allow entry for him and his staff and left the other shutter be. He did not disturb the sleeping man even a bit. I learned that day that a town can be Holy but not necessarily the townfolks.
I had seen a hunched man with bandaged legs and a cane shop and cross the streets in my daughter's township some time back. As I was heading in another direction across the street, I drove off. Then I saw him come out of a Government Clinic another day. I thought that since he lived in my daughter's neighborhood I shall drop him off. But my wife had not seen the doctor as yet. He might have to wait. Just then another man picked him up. Some days ago, he practically came into my path as I drove out of my daughter's home to make some errands. He waved me down. I for one followed the rules of the SOP during this pandemic. I asked myself if I should drive off or pick him up. I saw that he had a face mask on and I had mine on too. The moment I stopped my car he tugged at the handle of the front passenger door. I came out and opened the rear door of my car and he got in with much difficulty. But I waited patiently. Only after we drove off did I ask him where he wanted to go. He told me "Kedai Makan" that meant the restaurant". That's when he told me he was going over to eat. I dropped him at the restaurant that he pointed to and placed some cash into his shirt pocket and drove away. I did not know if he was fully vaccinated or whether he had a fever. I did not know if what I did was right? After all, the man was not jaywalking. Neither was he window shopping. Being a widower he had to eat outside. I surrendered to the divine to keep us both well.
Let us bring a change in us and in all the things we do as we usher the festival of lights Deepavali/Diwali.