Namaste
Is there collective karma? (viz “national karma”) …
There seems to be no karma without a person to cause it and feel the effects? This is the understanding – but can “nations” cause it and feel the effects?
Karma has effects that come from causes, cannot nations have effects that come from causes?
I hear of the “karma of this earth”. So is that a collective karma? One could point out that the aggregate of many individuals karma can become the spirit of the nation for good or bad, and thus “indirect karma of a nation”. But let us take two examples – Germany and India.
Germany (under the Nazi’s) committed many, many acts that would be the judgment of most Hindu saints, Gurus and Savants as “bad”. At the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, obviously there were consequences and pain felt by the Germans, but this could be argued is only from the perspective of the consequences of war and of losing a war, as well as the international courts of the victorious side of the war in holding those who committed war crimes against human dignity, racial crimes and so on, guilty and thus either given death or severe penalty.
But by 1949 and into 1950, one could argue that most Germans, if not all excluding the few who faced or were facing war crimes, were suffering not at all. Today Germany, despite the overall degradation of society in the West (but also even in India, see below), are not suffering, certainly not for the acts perpetrated by the Nazi’s from the 1930’s until 1945.
So if there was such a thing as “collective karma” or “national karma”, perhaps it only lasts at most 2 years? Or were all those individuals who were guilty, given horrific or bad karma in their next life, perhaps not born in Germany but in some horrible flea-bitten and dangerous poverty stricken nation, perhaps in Africa for example living in a village that is constantly under attack my militias and with polluted water?
It seems however, “Germany” as a nation actually suffered very little, albeit there was a lot of suffering in the final year of the war and the few years just after. But if there is something called “national karma”, it seems Germany as an identity of nation suffered zero karma. What we call Germany is wealthy, the people content, the water pure and so on. They are certainly well fed.
Now let us take India.
I see the degradation of the West, and it disturbs me. I hope the teachings of Hinduism can reverse this trend in the West. I see bad karma coming. But for whom? Because, sometimes I watch Indian Television including scenes from “Bollywood movies” – and I am becoming disgusted. The same degradation seems to have been imported (or adopted) in India. And now of late, I see a trend of such where, while vaguely cloaking a “critical perspective of the West” and “pride in culture”, in fact it is very convoluted in that they seem to want to all be filmed in London (for example), the stars are dressed as a Western man or woman, they dance Western debase dancing (it doesn’t even resemble Indian dance in any manner), even the tunes are now losing their “Indian identity” and starting to sound like rap music which I consider isn’t music at all but animal emotions and violent maya.
Will India soon suffer “collective karma” or “national karma”?
This might be an interesting topic. Wasn’t sure exactly where to put it – I think the best fit is Scripture. After all, I love and believe in the Ramayana. We hear that under Ram Raj, the people of the Raj were blessed. Of course, Rama as the Leader was Divine. I hope soon we will have such a Divine Leader again! But was the benefit of this Raj, simply because of Rama? Did Ram Raj have “collective karma”? What do the scriptures say? What do the Devas and Devi say? What do the Gurus say? What do the Saints say? What do the Hindus say?
Om Namah Sivaya
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