God and Human Suffering

[Sonny1954]

Is human suffering the result of accumulated bad karma? Let me be specific. I witinessed a discussion recently during which the moderator gave the example of a child born with severe disabilities. He asked a Christian why did God allow this to happen. The minister replied that he did not know and that know one could no as long as they are on this earth. The Hindu said that such a child was born that way as a result of the karma from his previous life.

The answer of the Hindu made more sense to me than that of the Christian. Is that view widely held by Hindus?

Thank You

[anupj]

Is human suffering the result of accumulated bad karma? Let me be specific. I witinessed a discussion recently during which the moderator gave the example of a child born with severe disabilities. He asked a Christian why did God allow this to happen. The minister replied that he did not know and that know one could no as long as they are on this earth. The Hindu said that such a child was born that way as a result of the karma from his previous life.

The answer of the Hindu made more sense to me than that of the Christian. Is that view widely held by Hindus?

Thank You

Namaste Sonny
first of all, welcome to the forum, I see that you have come to HDF to know more about hinduism, so have patience and you will definitely learn a lot.

@topic: as far as my view on this goes, my answer would be yes, and the view is definitely held by all the spiritual hindus that i know.

regards

anup

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam Sonny:

Welcome to HDF.

Yes, Hindus would see that as the individual's karma. However, some misinterpret it to be a cold-hearted view, and reason not to act.

But as we go along there are a couple of other ways, perhaps more importantly, in which we apply karma.

Although it is that person's karma to be there, it is also his or her karma to be in our presence at that moment. There is nothing to say its not his karma for us to reach out a warm and joyously helping hand. We also recognise, that but for slightly different circumstances, we would be in that situation.

We are creating karma with each and every action every minute of the day. So that thought, when retained, guides our actions in a dharmic uplifting and kind way.

Aum Namasivaya

[sanjaya]

Is human suffering the result of accumulated bad karma? Let me be specific. I witinessed a discussion recently during which the moderator gave the example of a child born with severe disabilities. He asked a Christian why did God allow this to happen. The minister replied that he did not know and that know one could no as long as they are on this earth. The Hindu said that such a child was born that way as a result of the karma from his previous life.

The answer of the Hindu made more sense to me than that of the Christian. Is that view widely held by Hindus?

Thank You

As EM points out, yes it's probably this person's karma (I say "probably" because we can rarely know these things with certainty), and no it is not an occasion for inaction on the part of those more fortunate. For example, we often see poor people in need and say that because their karma caused their poverty, we shouldn't interfere with God's justice. But if we say this, we are spiritually foolish. Hindu Scriptures say that giving alms to the poor is meritorious. By the same token, if we do not help the poor, then we are incuring the karmic consequences of our greed. As my mother (and likely many other Hindu mothers) say, "don't step on bugs, or you will be reborn as one."

Furthermore, when we mistreat those less fortunate than us and excuse our behavior by appealing to karma, we are making assumptions about very complicated issues. Consider the demon Ravana. Surely an evil man and an enemy of God must have the worst karma. Not so in this case. Ravana was actually a gatekeeper in Lord Vishnu's palace. The gatekeeper was given strict orders not to let the Lord be disturbed. When a rishi came and sought an audience with the Lord, the gatekeeper obeyed his master and did not grant him entrance. In anger the rishi cursed the gatekeeper to live on earth, and left. God respects holy men so much that he will never overrule their pronouncements, so Lord Vishnu gave the gatekeeper a choice. He said that he could either live a hundred lifetimes on earth as a friend of God, or three lifetimes as an enemy of God, and then return to Vaikunta. He chose the more distasteful but shorter of the options. Here was a man who, through no fault of his own, was cursed to lead the most adharmic of lives.

When we see people who lead unfortunate lives, it may be that they did evil in previous lives. It may also be that they chose these births for some reason or another, or it could be that God caused them to live like this for some greater purpose. The point is that we don't know. All we know is that we are in a position to use what God has given us to help another soul. And we should do so, lest we sin and incur the resulting karma.