VERY IMPORTANT Questions regarding Karma and Hukum (Destiny)

[Guest]

Waheguru Jee Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Jee Ke Fateh.

I have 2 very important questions regarding Karma and Hukum (Destiny). If anyone can answer them than I am sure it would help many more brothers and sisters as well who are trying to understand Sikhi.

It would certainly help me a lot.

Question 1: Karma according to Sikhi is simply "You harvest what you sow" (Japji, SGGS, P 4).

So now my question related to that is, if a 5 year old girl is choked to death by some rapists, why was that???

a) Is Sikhi saying that that girl deserved it (karma) because of her past actions???

b) And IF it was part of a Hukum (Destiny) than how would God be merciful and loving???

c) And IF it was part of a Hukum (Destiny) than why punish that rapist???

But we know that it was NOT the part of a Hukum (Destiny) or result of her Karma and that Rapist committed that sinful act by using his own "Free will" and so he rightfully deserves severe punishment.


Question 2: Is there a concept in Sikhi of asking Waheguru to help us in our hard times? If no okay, and if yes than why are our prayers not answered???

Please PLEASE do answer my question or ask someone who is knowledgeable about such things. I swear it would be such a huge help for me. I have doubts on these 2 things and a logical answer in the light of Sikhi to these questions would help me TREMENDOUSLY in strengthening my faith even more.

Please kindly do help me out by answering these questions.

WJKK WJKF _/\_

[Guest]

Waheguru Jee Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Jee Ke Fateh.

I have 2 very important questions regarding Karma and Hukum (Destiny). If anyone can answer them than I am sure it would help many more brothers and sisters as well who are trying to understand Sikhi.

It would certainly help me a lot.

Question 1: Karma according to Sikhi is simply "You harvest what you sow" (Japji, SGGS, P 4).

So now my question related to that is, if a 5 year old girl is choked to death by some rapists, why was that???

a) Is Sikhi saying that that girl deserved it (karma) because of her past actions???

b) And IF it was part of a Hukum (Destiny) than how would God be merciful and loving???

c) And IF it was part of a Hukum (Destiny) than why punish that rapist???

But we know that it was NOT the part of a Hukum (Destiny) or result of her Karma and that Rapist committed that sinful act by using his own "Free will" and so he rightfully deserves severe punishment.


Question 2: Is there a concept in Sikhi of asking Waheguru to help us in our hard times? If no okay, and if yes than why are our prayers not answered???

Please PLEASE do answer my question or ask someone who is knowledgeable about such things. I swear it would be such a huge help for me. I have doubts on these 2 things and a logical answer in the light of Sikhi to these questions would help me TREMENDOUSLY in strengthening my faith even more.

Please kindly do help me out by answering these questions.

WJKK WJKF _/\_

Hi, you definitely have good points in your questions. And those questions certainly have come across my mind many times before. I don't have a clear answer to your questions but I will attempt at logically answering them. For the first question, I'm assuming that it is not necessarily the girls karma that dictated her fate simply because of the mans free will that he chose to do evil. Keep in mind that free will is not a state where we can do right or wrong, it is the state of doing right. God is therefore merciful because despite the concequences of doing evil we still have free will. For the second question, how can we really know that God is not answering our prayers? God is greater than everything, Are we greater than God that we can say He is not answering our prayers? It may look like he is not answering but to man we will never know but we should have faith that God is providing always.

I hope that my attempts to answer your question have at least helped you in some ways. Peace.

[ADS]

i think, God has created many varieties of human being. all unique in looks, thoughts, etc. Due to their biological differences, their attraction towards another person vary as well. Our society is being programmed, since its existence, to accept people with straight orientation. This programming is bringing change every second in our society. In coming times we will have acceptance to gay, transgenders and pedophiles too... This is one assumption on type of actions done by human on this earth. Good works and criminal works are all with the person who does it. It all depends on his/her psychological condition at that moment.

Else everything that define such acts are delusions created by franchisers of God.

This is entirely my interpretation as per my experience with this world.

[Bundha]

Generally speaking we ask many questions but sometimes we do not have the capacity to understand the answer.

You demand how a card trick is done from a magician, he relents and shows you how it is done but that does not mean you can do the trick. You do not have the years of experience of sleight-of-hand to perform the trick.

You want to know the workings of the theory of relativity or quantum mechanics, this can be explained to you but chances are if you have not had any grounding in the subject the explanation will not mean much to you.

In the same way we ask questions about spirituality and AkaalPurkhs laws but if we have not created a foundation then how can we understand the answers? The questions are all well and good but if we have no Naam, if we have no simran, if we have no abhiaas then we can listen to the answers but all we will sprout are more questions and people waste away their whole lives by just asking question upon question, their mind never attains a level of calm and content-ness because they never practically follow the Gurus path.

Through Naam/Simran most of these questions get their answers automatically and the mind remains calm and content, but who is willing to put in the time and effort?

The law of Karma is incredibly intricate, cause and effect is the tip of the iceberg. Think of the neurons on the brain and the law of Karma is as intricate as that, if not more. Every action you take is recorded, every thought that you have is recorded, every time you change your gaze from one place to another it is recorded. The law of returns comes round, maybe in a month’s time or a year’s time or in a decade or in your next life but come it will, and by the time it comes we have forgotten all our misdemeanours and wonder why we are having such a hard time. AkaalPurkh is all loving and all caring but we ourselves move away from Him by our own actions and then we blame Him. We are to blame for all our woes.

How many times have we walked past an attractive lady/man and had a thought of “Ooh could do with a bit of that!” if this turns into a Karam then it gets written down. You have no link or dealing with this lady but now you are inextricably linked because of that one chance meeting and you creating a link. Now in time that karam will bear fruit, maybe in another life you both come together but will argue and fight, why? Because there was initially no karam between you, you have nothing in common but because of that one Karam you now have to suffer and work your way through it.

One has to be a little careful what one says these days as many people get very upset when the law of karma is explained. A few years ago the coach of the England football (soccer) team was hounded out of his newly appointed job when he suggested that those unfortunate then we are are in their predicament due to past actions.

So, this girl who has been assaulted is bearing the fruits that she has sown and the perpetrator is now sowing the seeds of his future pain but it is no coincidence that he is where he is and she is where she is, but he can make a decision to go through with his actions and sow bad karma or walk away and avoid the situation, in doing so he has also spared the girl of her pain and creating good karam. In the end it is the will of Akaal Purkh , but we should not go down this route because we do not have the spiritual level to understand this, our low spiritual intellect cannot cope with this and we will become unstuck. Leave this until we are drenched in Naam, we will understand automatically.

Sometimes a karam can become, for want of a better word, ripe. That is to say you cannot avoid it, you have to work your way through it. But even then Akaal Purkh is so ‘dhayawaan’/merciful that if you ask His help, if you do ardaas/pray they He will assist you. That karam may be reduced to a fraction of what it should have been, yet we will still complain that God is so uncaring. That karam may even be passed through in a very dreadful dream. Praise be to AkaalPurkh Ji who helps us in so many ways even when we are not deserving.

Prayer works, Guru Ji always listens, but do we only pray when it is convenient for us or do we remember Guru Ji at other times?

A father provides toys and games to his children, each child is engrossed in his or her play and totally ignores him but only one child from time to time looks up at him and gives him a big smile. Who do you think the father will be most pleased with? If that child then asks his father for something will the father not drop everything to assist?

[loveforsikhi]

I think it’s important to ask these questions. When we are challenged in a crisis and we witness a tragedy, or we experience a tragedy these are the questions our mind asks. And without an answer that gives us peace, we wander in confusion and we lose our way from our faith. I’ve been researching this topic for a while now, trying to piece together an understanding from gurbani and discussions like this one and make sense of this. Here is my understanding, forgive me if I make mistakes here because I’m just learning too. My understanding is that:
1. No she didn’t “deserve it” due to her past actions. Here’s my explanation of karma- you choose to do good things or bad things, if you choose to do bad things then your soul is farther from God by the end of this lifetime, and you have to go through more reincarnations to get back to Him and make more good choices. If you do good things, you will be closer to God faster. In that higher state of consciousness that you eventually reach (while you are still alive), you don’t experience the physical suffering because the body is just a costume and your soul loves God. So it’s not about karma. It’s about the rapist’s free will and his karma. He chose to rape and choke the girl. She was the victim of that crime, but her soul is still alive and she will be reincarnated again to have a chance to be one with the Lord. Karma sets up the parameters that you are born into in your next life.
2. When we say Hukam- our ultimate destiny is that we will all be one with God through our journey. God has created free will and karma. And God has created pain and maya: “You created pain along with pleasure; O Creator, such is the writ You have written.” (page 787 Sri Guru Granth Sahib). But he gave us all the chance to be one with Him too. He forgives us, he has no enemy. He loves us all. (sorry if my using “He” is offending anyone, but I’m not really sure what to use instead, I’m just getting the point across).
3. The Gurus could have given into the oppression, but they taught us to make choices to fight for what’s right. If free will didn’t matter, they would not have taught us to do Naam simran or earn an honest living. The sacrifices that the many Sikhs have given before us are because the right thing to do in all the choices they were presented with was to fight, to sacrifice their lives, to never give in. The little girl deserves justice, and we as Sikhs need to fight against injustice, that’s what we were given this mind for.

I’ve seen many people ask God for things in Ardaas, but i don't think it's necessarily how it's supposed to be. But in reality, God knows what we each need and desire so we don’t need to list them off for Him. God is here with us throughout whatever we are suffering through. I think we get a lot more our of our prayers if we just allow ourselves to connect through our prayers and use that energy to do what is required of us in the situations that present themselves today.

[Bundha]

We all recite Japji Sahib everyday - Apay bijj Apayhe khao, Nanak Hukami avoe jao.

We reap what we have sowed, cannot be any more plain.


Siree Raag, Third Mehla: Ang 33
By His Grace, the Guru is found, and the Name of the Lord is implanted within.
Without the Guru, no one has obtained it; they waste away their lives in vain.
The self-willed manmukhs create karma, and in the Court of the Lord, they receive their punishment. ||1||
O mind, give up the love of duality.
The Lord dwells within you; serving the Guru, you shall find peace. ||Pause||

[IJJSingh]

Khalsa ji,

Nobody can claim to understand the mysteries of Akal Purkh, I can share with you what I have understood from gurbani.

We live in duality. Gurbani teaches us oneness and is written in the frame of oneness. In my view, doubts raised in your questions disappear once viewed through the concept of oneness.

Let me start by stating some of the key oneness principles outlined in Gurbani:
• Nothing in this universe exists but God. ਸਭੁ ਗੋਬਿੰਦੁ ਹੈ ਸਭੁ ਗੋਬਿੰਦੁ ਹੈ ਗੋਬਿੰਦ ਬਿਨੁ ਨਹੀ ਕੋਈ ॥ God is everything, God is everything. Without God, there is nothing at all. (SGGS 485).
• Everything we see and perceive is an illusion (maya) created by one soul (God). The good, the bad, the victim and the victimizer are all God. ਆਪੇ ਮਾਛੀ ਮਛੁਲੀ ਆਪੇ ਪਾਣੀ ਜਾਲੁ ॥ ਆਪੇ ਜਾਲ ਮਣਕੜਾ ਆਪੇ ਅੰਦਰਿ ਲਾਲੁ ॥ He Himself is the fisherman and the fish; He Himself is the water and the net. He Himself is the sinker, and He Himself is the bait. (SGGS 23)
• A human being is made of the following three things: 1) Body: It is inanimate and ends with physical death. 2) Mind: It’s ever changing. Ignorance of mind is what makes the illusion appear real to us. 3) Soul: Is God, and it is unchangeable, immortal and is always in anand and samadhi.
• The combination of mind and soul is given the name jeev or jeevatma. Jeev is the immortal essence of a living organism which survives physical death, and carries experiences (karma) from one life to the next. Jeev is similar to atma (soul) but different in one important way: Atma (soul) is self-aware and is cosmic, whereas jeev because of the presence of mind is individualistic (in ego) and is on its journey to self-awareness.
• Mind has the capacity to accept the qualities of whatever it associates with. Most of us think we are a body, when in reality we are the soul. As long as our mind associates with body, and its pleasures, it cannot associate with soul. Through word (Guru and his grace) mind starts associating with soul, and through gurmat it becomes self-aware and disappears into the soul.
• The purpose of human existence is to reach self-awareness. Ones who become self-aware, even while alive claim that they stop seeing the universe and see only one soul (you can read this in biographies of saints such as Sant Isher Singh ji Rarewale and Bhai Raghbir Singh Bir). In SGGS, Bhagat Kabir ji makes the same statement: ਕਬੀਰ ਤੂੰ ਤੂੰ ਕਰਤਾ ਤੂ ਹੂਆ ਮੁਝ ਮਹਿ ਰਹਾ ਨ ਹੂੰ ॥ ਜਬ ਆਪਾ ਪਰ ਕਾ ਮਿਟਿ ਗਇਆ ਜਤ ਦੇਖਉ ਤਤ ਤੂ ॥ Kabeer, repeating, "You, You", I have become like You. Nothing of me remains in myself. When the difference between myself and others is removed, then wherever I look, I see only You. (SGGS 1375)
• A mind cannot turn towards soul when it is indulging in evil deeds. Good deeds are necessary for us to bond with gurbani. However, doing good deeds alone are not enough for salvation. Good deeds have the ability to lead us to gyan (knowledge) but good deeds do not have the ability to lead us to awareness; only gyan leads us to awareness. If one focusses only on good deeds, then through good karma, he/she will get good rewards in life but will still remain trapped in illusion. Sikhism does not emphasize deeds, rather it emphasizes naam (gyan): ਪਾਪ ਪੁੰਨ ਦੁਇ ਏਕ ਸਮਾਨ ॥ ਨਿਜ ਘਰਿ ਪਾਰਸੁ ਤਜਹੁ ਗੁਨ ਆਨ ॥ Sin and virtue are both the same. In the home of your own being, is the Philosopher's Stone [soul]; renounce your search for any other virtue. SGGS 325

Before, I answer your questions directly, let me use a crude analogy based on the above oneness principles which may help in resolving your doubts. Let’s assume that you have extraordinary abilities (as God), and for your own amusement you decided to invent a virtual reality game which includes many characters. Every character in the game is powered by your brain (equivalent to soul), your brain has then generated secondary source of intelligence in each character (equivalent to mind). Even though it’s your brain controlling every character, you made every character’s secondary-intelligence to believe that it is in-charge. Each character is then given a body, and you pre-programmed an environment (maya) and defined good and bad actions and their consequences (karam). These consequences are all fair, predictable and just. Purpose of this game is for these characters to become aware that they are in a virtual reality illusion and in fact they are really you. The more these characters attach with the virtual reality environment, and more they indulge in negative behavior the more ignorant they become of your existence (ego builds). In order to give these characters a fair shot, you have also created a character which is only given your brain without the illusion causing secondary-intelligence (this character is equivalent to Guru). The Guru character tells the other characters of reality and shows them the way (gurmat) to achieve self-awareness. Each character is given a persona (body) for a limited amount of time; their future sadness/happiness/status depends upon actions they take in their environment. When one life ends, the secondary-intelligence with its score from the previous life is given a new persona, and the game carries on. Some characters do positive things, and some harm others. You care for every single character (because every character is you), and continue giving them renewed chances of redemption. In their ego, every character thinks that they are the ones earning everything and keeping themselves alive, but in truth, you are the one running the virtual reality and is sustaining everybody (hukam). No amount of good deeds will get a character out of virtual reality. In order to get out of virtual reality, the secondary-intelligence must listen to the Guru character and follow the gyan given by the Guru.

Now let me answer your questions directly:

Question 1: Karma according to Sikhi is simply "You harvest what you sow" (Japji, SGGS, P 4).
So now my question related to that is, if a 5 year old girl is choked to death by some rapists, why was that???
a) Is Sikhi saying that that girl deserved it (karma) because of her past actions???

Yes, although I may not use the term:“deserved”, because everything is happening to Akal Purkh. Also, consequences are necessary, without any consequences God’s game of illusion doesn’t work.

b) And IF it was part of a Hukum (Destiny) than how would God be merciful and loving???

God is merciful and loving because:
• It’s a game, everything is happening only to God. Emotions like mercy and love require more than one entity.
• No matter how negatively somebody acts in this game, God’s behavior towards that person remains unchanged. Nothing is held against the person as far as the main objective of self-awareness is concerned or the application of rules is concerned. The moment somebody chooses to walk on the path of self-awareness, all their past digressions and pain becomes irrelevant.
• Even if we were to assume that God and person are separate entities, I still feel that God can’t be called unloving or cruel. As an example, imagine a man lived in his father’s house. The father built strong walls in this house for security and for protecting his son against the elements. He showed his son how to use doors in the house to get in and out. If after all of this knowledge and gifts, the son insists on running into solid walls to get in/out rather than using the doors, and keeps getting hurt in the process. Then, is the son justified in calling his father unloving and cruel?

c) And IF it was part of a Hukum (Destiny) than why punish that rapist???

Hukam is everything that God has put into place, which includes the consequences and rules of the game. Pain/punishment is not caused by deeds, rather its caused by separation from God. People who are self-aware for them even the so called “punishment” is reward (e.g. Guru Arjun Dev ji’s martyrdom), and the ones who are ignorant and engrossed in maya for them even the “reward” can become punishment.

Question 2: Is there a concept in Sikhi of asking Waheguru to help us in our hard times? If no okay, and if yes than why are our prayers not answered???

Yes, we ask God for help in hard times. But what gurbani tells us to ask for is quite different than what we commonly understand. Prayer (ardas or supplication) is one of the commonly misunderstood words in Sikhism. We believe that we say prayer to:
• Make God listen to us. This is not the case, because God already knows what we are thinking and then some. We have access only to our mind and body. God has access to our soul as well as our mind and body and unlike us has knowledge of things to come.
• Make God change his reaction or behavior towards us. This is also not the case, because by definition God is unchangeable and perfect. How could one change something like that? It’s God’s quality to be always loving and caring. He doesn’t stop showering warmth on us even when we cocoon ourselves in maya and refuse to accept or are unable to feel any of it.
• Change the rules of the game (i.e. we expect flowers even when we sow thorns). This also is not true. Firstly, it goes against the principles of justice. Secondly, even if our wishes were to be granted, it’s a useless pursuit. Because everything we receive in the game is an illusion, fleeting and pain-causing. ਵਿਣੁ ਤੁਧੁ ਹੋਰੁ ਜਿ ਮੰਗਣਾ ਸਿਰਿ ਦੁਖਾ ਕੈ ਦੁਖ ॥ ਦੇਹਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਸੰਤੋਖੀਆ ਉਤਰੈ ਮਨ ਕੀ ਭੁਖ ॥ To ask for any other than You, Lord, is the most miserable of miseries. Please bless me with Your Name, and make me content; may the hunger of my mind be satisfied. (SGGS 958)

I believe that the true purpose of the prayer is to change ourselves so that we can wake up, and ignorance or illusion stops scaring/paining us. Prayer leads to reduction in ego through surrendering. As our ego diminishes, we start seeing reality more and more. We start removing the cocoons we built around us which were causing us to feel cold, and for the first time we start feeling the warmth of the sun which was always falling on us equally regardless of whether we were a sinner or a saint.

Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh