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Mahabharata katha London
2012
Since time immemorial, philosophers, soothsayers, prophets, priests and diviners
have been asked to answer - Why a good God allows evil to exist ? Why do
bad things happen to good people?
This is an age old question that everyone asks – good and bad people.
Everyone wants to know why did heaven dump on ME ?
Everyone considers themselves as ‘good’ and ‘in the right’ and can’t understand
why they were badly treated by fate.
Hinduism being as holistic as it is, offers a number of different answers as to
why bad things happen to good people. For sake of simplicity, I will keep it
brief. There are other articles on this site to elaborate on the
individual points.
1) Karma Marg - Good and bad happens as a result of our past karmas. Just
because you are good now doesn't mean you can "do no wrong". Even the good and
the great can make mistakes. Everyone, including the Gods, have to pay for
their mistakes. It is not a punishment, but fruit of your own actions. There
is no need to feel despondent though, as once the karma is paid for, you are
free and will not have to suffer its effects again. If you do not like the
karma-phal, learn from your mistakes and do not repeat the same karma again.
http://www.pushti-marg.net/bhagwat/Mahabharata/karma1.htm
2) Jyana Marg - Life is a journey. In a journey we may have many ups and downs.
We may even have to turn around because our earlier choices did not work out.
Course correction is the only constant in a journey till we reach our goal.
In a journey as long as ‘life’, we are bound to make many course corrections.
Mistakes happen. Sometimes we make them. Sometimes others make them.
Sometimes we suffer as a result of our mistakes. Sometimes we suffer as a
result of mistakes made by others. Key thing is to learn from it and not make
the same mistake twice. It’s the old adage, "Make a fool of me once, shame on
you. Make a fool of me twice, shame on me." If you learn from your mistake,
you have gained something even from an adverse condition. It is no longer a
loss but a gain. If you convert enough losses into gains, you can be an overall
winner in this journey of life.
It doesn't matter if you classify yourself as "good" or bad, and by the way, no
one classifies themselves as "bad". If you make a mistake, life will
punish you for it. It’s a universal law. Nothing personal. Its just the way
it is. Learn from your mistakes and move on.
http://www.pushti-marg.net/bhagwat/Mahabharata/study-maha.htm
3) Bhakti Marg – Everything we see in the universe is divine lila – play.
Just as you need tragedy, comedy, romance, pathos, victory and loss for a play
to be interesting, ‘life’ as its ups and downs to make ‘life’ interesting. You
need a variety of different spices to make dinner interesting. You need a
diverse range of colours to make a painting interesting. Similarly, life gives
us our share of ups, downs and total wipe outs to make life interesting.
Without the full range of experiences, life would be boring, dull and
monotonous. God sends us all the experiences we have so that we can appreciate
‘life’. He does it so that we can have fun. Bad times allow us to
appreciate the good times and hence we can value the moment when we have "fun".
Life, even our life, is God's nirdosh lila - innocent fun.
What we see as good, bad or ugly in life, is actually lila of the lord. It
isn’t fate. Fate is what God as decreed for you and you must submit to it.
This is play. There is an element of free will, an element of fun and
element of ‘surprise’ too.
© Bhagwat [email protected]