These are popular notions based on the idea that God is essentially human in his nature and responses except that He has unlimited powers and hence can do anything He likes. We see the world and expect God to behave like a human judge except that He would be the perfect judge who will instantly catch the scoundrel and punish him while ensure that the life of a good and honest man is rewarded with material success and money.
All these notions have never really matched with ground reality and the bare facts of life. Hence, human beings take one of the two approaches. Either they stop believing in God because He does not neatly fit into our idea of what God should be, an omnipotent human basically, doing all human things with human motives, in a superefficient way! Or else we try to justify Him and the disparity and evil in the world by weaving remarkable karma theories and Illusionism theories so that blame is passed entirely on Man. Human thought, secular and religious, swings between these two extremes. But it doesn’t take much to see through the inadequacy of both. Not going into these details, let us come to the subject.
God’s business is not to satisfy crude human ideas of miracles or to be a wish-fulfilment tree, kalpavriksha, or to act as a tribunal of justice; Shani dev can do it better. His work is to shape us in His own image just as a parent would want the child to be his perfect best, so too the Divine wants us, His children, to grow into our unique best, to realise our highest possibility, to achieve the Divine Perfection. If it can be done through gentler means, the better it is. But if it needs giant strokes, then God does not hesitate to shape us through that. The child may cry momentarily, but God knows that whatever He is doing is as an act of Love, but Love that is not blind but moved by Wisdom. His Omnipotence is always one with His Omniscience and hence His moves are all planned and executed with a rare perfection. The whole universe is an evidence to how God builds perfection through the most trivial things. But building perfection needs time. It takes centuries or millenniums and human body as yet does not last long. It will one day, for that is part of His Agenda, in fact, the culminating Masterstroke.
Because of the challenge that rigid physical matter imposes, He has brought out of Himself a portion that remains and evolves from birth to birth, from life to life, carrying the seeds of perfection and the growth/ evolution accomplished in one life to another until it is ready to express the latent divine possibilities.
Sometimes this process needs sharp chiseling and we blame it on the ‘wrong deeds’. Sometimes this process of evolution requires a gentle shaping in a particular life and we attribute it to ‘good deeds’. The truth behind this is twofold. Firstly, the greater the possibility, the greater the chiselling is needed, as we see in the case of the Pandavas and many others. All who rise to real greatness go through quite a number of challenges before they become God’s instrument. Secondly, if the material, that is to say the human consciousness or human nature, is hard and rigid, then the shaping process is felt painful. It is here that our actions and state of consciousness behind the actions matter. If we act selfishly, even though outwardly it may seem a good action, our consciousness becomes small and narrow and has to be pierced with pain to broaden and open up. If we act rigidly as egoistic people do, then they are likely to be hit with blows, not necessarily in this life. The blow is given as a wake-up call because the time to change has come.
There are, however, immediate results of our actions too that go unobserved by the outward-looking eyes that see only the surfaces. For example, a rich, dishonest man or a wicked politician may look as if they are happy because they can afford a business class ticket. But a closer look at their life will show how deprived they are. They stop feeling authentic love and joy and need to buy it or beg for it from fake friends and night parties. On the other hand, an ordinary vegetable vendor who owns nothing may yet have a genuine smile and a beautiful heart, which gives him natural happiness. In fact, a cruel, selfish act hardens us and cuts us off from the universal delight, whereas a wide, generous, unselfish actions open us to the universal current of joy and life blossoms like a flower.
As to duty, the most important duty of a human being is to recover his divinity fully. A flower helps the world best if it blossoms fully. A fruit gives its best to the world by growing ripe through the process. Or to use terms of the ancient social order, a brahmin’s duty is to gain the highest knowledge and share it freely with the society, a kshatriya serves best if he stands up and fights for what is true and noble and beautiful. Similarly, a vaishya serves best if he uses money for producing and creating and circulating beautiful things in the world and a shudra does all kinds of work with hands and labours with perfection. Family welfare was never the main consideration. It was, at best, a natural aspect of life that even animals engage in. At worst, it stifled the greater growth of the evolving soul by tying it down to family duties and commitments. That is why Sri Krishna rebukes Arjuna, who places family considerations over the call of his swadharma.
This is, of course, a short, quick summary of the law of Karma and the ways of God with humanity.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
