O Karma, Are Thy Ways Inscrutable?

Introduction

Theirs not to reason why
Theirs but to do and die.

Swami Vivekananda also exhorted, ‘Let me see that you die while laboring hard.’

Uncompromisingly, as it were, Sri Krishna says in the Gita, ‘That which you do not wish to perform due to delusion, you shall be compelled to do (kartum nechchhasi yanmohat karishyasi avashah api tat).’

‘Theirs but to do and die’—poor ‘they’! In the Gita, Arjuna, the ardent devotee and friend of Krishna, could not remain without asking the obvious question: ‘Why then, O Keshava, do you engage me in this terrible action?’

Jack works day and night for his livelihood and that of his dependants; I follow the path of righteousness as enjoined by the scriptures; you are a devoted recluse or a householder engaged in meditation of God; a person does some welfare work without thought of any return whatsoever; Mr. So and So cheats people and commits crimes; so goes the list of various works or actions performed by people. The scriptures have not created any karma, nor do they thrust them upon us, but they simply grouped the karmas according to their gati or result. They are being performed by people having various types of nature.

© Editorial `The Vedanta Kesari’ (August 2001) published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, chennai 600 004. (Website: www.sriramakrishnamath.org).

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