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Is our future really determined by past “karma”?
Teachers of Far Eastern religions maintain that the
process of reincarnation is necessary for the ‘reaping’ of what some
call ‘the karmic debt.’ This process determines the ongoing evolution of
the soul. Every action produces either good or bad karma. Ordinarily, good
karma cannot cancel bad karma (though some teach it can). Each cause must
have its own effect. In his book, "The Teachings of Yogi Bhajan,"
my former guru explained, "There are no accidents. Anything that comes
to you, you have put out beams for it."1 According to this
theory, if we have an accident or any kind of negative experience, we have
drawn it into our lives by some former negative behavior, probably in a
previous existence. However, Yogi Bhajan even went as far as saying that,
"Every word uttered by you must come back to you within twelve years
and it must grip you within the scale of seven years. This is a law of
nature."2
If Yogi Bhajan’s theory is correct (and if I am
interpreting his words correctly) karma would usually have to have its
effect within the same earthly life span, especially since our words are
inseparably tied to our actions. The main ‘overflow’ of karma that a
person would carry into the next life would primarily be the result of the
last seven to twelve years of his or her life.
Whether or not this was Yogi Bhajan’s intended meaning,
most teachers of the doctrine of karma agree that any negative or positive
thing we do in life produces either bad or good karma that will inevitably
be reaped, either in the same life or a future life. The object of the soul’s
sojourn in this world is to walk in such righteousness, love and devotion to
right religious principles that only good karma is sown. When this happens,
when we become so perfected that we have no more negative karma, we attain moksha
(release from samsara, the cycle of rebirths). Supposedly, this
process can be quite lengthy. Some adherents of this doctrine feel it can
involve hundreds, thousands, even millions of separate existences.
Thirteen Reasons Why I No Longer Embrace
the Related Doctrines of Reincarnation and Karma
(1) If suffering, evil and imperfection in any individual
are a result of negative karma reaped from a former life, then how do
suffering, evil and imperfection make their appearance in a soul’s first
‘incarnation’? Since every human being goes through suffering in
this world, and every person is subject to evil and imperfection, there is
no person free from this evidence of previous guiltiness. Therefore, there
is absolutely no proof that anyone has been born for the first time with a
‘clean slate.’
(2) It is taught that the justice of God demands the
concept of reincarnation. For instance, if a child is born physically
debilitated or in abject poverty, there is no other explanation for such a
condition than the presupposition that this is repayment for evil behavior
in a former life. Otherwise, allowing such a circumstance would be
sufficient evidence to indict the Almighty God with the crime of injustice.
A loving Creator could never allow such a terrible plight to come upon an
innocent child. So negative circumstances can only be the result of karmic
indebtedness.
Believing this line of logic supposedly preserves the
integrity and justness of God and places the blame on man for his own
predicament. But does this really answer the questions we all ask concerning
human suffering? Does it not instead catapult the human race into an even
greater abyss of despair?
If this scenario is true, then the innocent child is no
longer innocent and good people who suffer are no longer good. Instead they
are all guilty parties who should unresistingly submit to the ‘punishment’
they deserve. How could this possibly be fair and just treatment especially
since those who suffer have no recollection of the ill deeds for which they
are being ‘punished’? Furthermore, because there is no remembrance of
the causal action, unfortunate recipients of such ‘karmic curses’ cannot
assess their wrong behavior patterns in order to make necessary adjustments
in their character.
The unfairness of this doctrine is magnified even more if
the Buddhist doctrine of no-self (anatta) is correct. According to
this view, there is no enduring self or soul that exists from one
incarnation to the next. Instead, five ‘aggregates’ are disassembled at
death and a new person is assembled from five new aggregates in the next
incarnation. The only thing transferred from one manifestation to the next
is the "unconscious disposition" with its attachment of karma
accumulated from previous lives. In this scenario, a person does not suffer
for his own evil deeds, but for those performed by altogether different
individuals. In the Garland Sutra (10) this is verified—"According
to what deeds are done, do their resulting consequences come to be; yet
the doer has no existence: this is the Buddha’s teaching." One
person being subjected to suffering because of another person’s errors is
not justice; it is injustice—of cosmic proportions.
(3) If negative karma must be paid off, then any person
used to execute such ‘divine justice’ unwittingly throws himself into
the same vicious cycle. For instance, if someone lived his life as a
compulsive thief, it would be necessary for that same person, in a future
life, to be subjected to numerous robberies. But the thieves fated to
participate in this ‘karmic payoff’ would be sowing negative karma that
they too must reap in future lives, making it necessary for a third
generation of robbers to emerge. Further down the karmic road, those fated
to fill the role of fourth generation ‘robbers of the robbers of the
robbers of the robber’ would also incur a load of karmic debt that must be
paid off. This would necessitate many more thieves to be born in order for
‘robbers of the robbers of the robbers of the robbers of the robber’ to
make their appearance on the stage of life. So the process would multiply
itself exponentially into an inescapable, never-ending,
infinitely-enlarging, impossible-to-solve scenario. Besides, are these
thieves making the choice, out of their own free will, to rob others or did
fate destine them to be thieves? If the latter is true, injustice reigns
over the future of the human race, because people are forced to do things
for which they are then punished because of karma. They become unknowing and
unwilling victims of an irresistable process.
(4) Belief in the law of karma can actually result in
indifference toward, and even inhumane treatment of, those who are suffering.
Logic would dictate that people in misery are just paying off their karma.
So why interfere? In fact, if someone does interfere with the karmic process
through an act of charity, it could serve to prolong a person’s suffering
(even lifetimes) because the repayment of the karmic debt is postponed. So
theoretically, the only safe reaction to society’s woes would be passive
non-involvement, detachment, withdrawal from a pained world (a paralyzing
mindset that often dominates societies where this doctrine is embraced).
Taken to an obviously, rarely-embraced extreme, if the
doctrine of karma is right, helping others could actually be doing them a
disservice. Doctors should not help the sickly; counselors should not help
the mentally impaired; benevolent persons should not give alms to the
underprivileged. Because in doing these things, those compassionate persons
are resisting what fate has dictated for the hurting. If this is the case,
is it not even possible that the benevolent person could be earning negative
karma himself? By assisting the helpless and the hopeless, he could
actually, in some situations, be hurting them and hurting himself. So the
answer would be, not alleviating all of this misery, but escaping into an
inner world by striving to attain some ‘higher Self.’
Of course, it must be said that many who believe in karma
and reincarnation are very compassionate persons who actually make great
efforts to reach out to those who are needy. This is commendable, and I am
certainly not suggesting that they should do otherwise. But when this
doctrine is closely inspected, these facets of interpretation must be
seriously considered.
(5) Certain predictions of karmic retribution in ancient
Hindu sacred texts appear much too severe and obviously unjust. The
Puranas are considered sacred and inspired writings by Hindus. The following
passage from this portion of Hindu Scripture communicates a detailed warning
concerning the severity of the karmic retribution resulting from specific
sinful acts:
The murderer of a Brahmin becomes consumptive, the
killer of a cow becomes humpbacked and imbecile, the murderer of a
virgin becomes leprous—all three born as outcastes. The slayer of a
woman and the destroyer of embryos becomes a savage full of diseases;
who commits illicit intercourse, a eunuch; who goes with his teacher’s
wife, disease-skinned. The eater of flesh becomes very red; the drinker
of intoxicants, one with discolored teeth…Who steals food becomes a
rat; who steals grain becomes a locust…honey, a gadfly; flesh, a
vulture; and salt, an ant…Who commits unnatural vice becomes a village
pig; who consorts with a Sudra woman becomes a bull; who is passionate
becomes a lustful horse…These and other signs and births are seen to
be the karma of the embodied, made by themselves in this world. Thus the
makers of bad karma, having experienced the tortures of hell, are reborn
with the residues of their sins, in these stated forms. (Garuda Purana
5)
Does it not seem unreasonable that these terrible curses
are the in-evitable plight of those who transgress in the ways mentioned
above? Though some are extremely grave sins (such as murder and adultery),
others are quite minor. What if there was a benevolent man who helped
thousands, who built hospitals, who gave to the poor, who lived and promoted
the truth his entire life, yet he unfortunately stole some salt when he was
a young boy? According to this passage, his change of heart and his
righteous acts would be of no avail. Because of one ill deed in his youth,
this man would be confined to the horrid destiny of becoming an insect until
his karmic debt was sufficiently paid off (because good karma normally
cannot cancel out bad karma). Such severe treatment could only be
labeled unfair and unjust. It isolates individual errors instead of
determining a person’s destiny according to the total contribution of his
or her life.
Of course, it must be stated that many proponents of the
doctrine of reincarnation, both East and West, do not accept the idea of the
regression of the soul from human to animal form. For instance, Theosophist
Irving Cooper commented, "Progress is forwards, not backwards, so as we
advance we always come back in human bodies, each one a little better than
the previous one. Sometimes, it is true, for some grievous fault, we may
during one incarnation retrace our steps to a slight extent and take birth
in a less advanced type of body and under less favorable conditions. But
this retrograde movement is apparent and not real, even as the backward
movement of an eddy in the flowing water of a river does not change the
forward course of the stream."3 So there is great
disagreement even among reincarnationists concerning the correct
interpretation of this process.
(6) The doctrines of karma and reincarnation leave no
room for forgiveness coming from God, as promised in the Bible. In Mark
1:15 Jesus exhorted his listeners to "Repent and believe in the
Gospel." (The word gospel means "good news"—the ‘good
news’ of the message that Jesus preached.) This passage reveals the two
necessary prerequisites for those desiring salvation and forgiveness for
sins. The first is repentance (which is genuine sorrow for sin resulting in
a change of mind). The second is faith toward God (confidence and trust that
he will fulfill his promises). Those who fulfill these criteria place
themselves in a receptive position to receive that divine forgiveness that
wipes sin out of existence. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness." (See Matthew 9:13, Romans 6:23, John 3:14–16;
5:24; 10:28, Acts 5:31, Hebrews 6:1.)
There is no biblical passage that even remotely implies
the progressive evolution of the soul by means of self-achieved works of
righteousness over a period of multiple lives. Quite the contrary, Titus 3:5
states, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Spirit." This "washing" and
"renewing" of the soul is a reference to the spiritual rebirth
that takes place when the Spirit of Christ indwells any person yielding to
his influence. Of course, only a personal and transcendent God can make the
decision to forgive and indwell the heart of a remorseful, receptive and
believing person. An impersonal, pantheistic, cosmic force could never
willfully respond to carry out such a compassionate act of divine
intervention.
(7) There are some means offered through Hinduism and
other related religions that enable adherents to escape the accumulated
effects of negative karma. For instance, it is generally accepted that
if Hindus die in the city of Varanasi, especially if they have washed away
their sins in the nearby River Ganges, such privileged ones will go straight
to Shiva, returning immediately upon death to oneness with the Godhead. All
negative karma that should forestall such an event is instead bypassed.
Another escape from karma is promised in the Ramayana, an epic
considered sacred and inspired. This portion of Hindu Scripture ends with a
pledge that those who "read it" or "hear it read" will
have all their sin washed away.
Some propose that meditating on the third eye can destroy
karma from previous lives. Yogi Bhajan of Kundalini Yoga explains the value
of chanting mantras, "Who is powerful? God or you? When you do the japa,
chanting repetitiously, then the result is tapa, the heat that burns
the karma."4
Some gurus and swamis claim to be able to dissolve
negative karma in the lives of their disciples just by personal contact.
Similar to this, Sikhs are encouraged in their holy book: "Whoever
meditates on Guru Arjun [the fifth Guru in Sikhism] shall not have to pass
through the painful womb of reincarnation ever again." (Adi Granth
1409:6)
Animal sacrifices have also been prescribed in Hinduism.
In the Brahmanas, the ancient horse sacrifice (which began with the
slaughter of 609 animals) was said to be especially efficacious. Though it
took a year to finish, it was spoken of as "atonement for everything,
the remedy for everything" redeeming all sin.5
If Jesus was an Avatar, as some claim, and if he knew
these means of escaping karmic indebtedness were viable options, he would
have surely concluded that dying on the cross was unnecessary. He would have
emphasized pilgrimages to the city of Varanasi for the sick and ailing, the
reading of the Ramayana, concentration on the third eye, the chanting of
mantras or simple interaction with his disciples, karmically rewarding their
devotion to him. If Jesus really did study under enlightened masters in
India during his hidden years, as some assert, he certainly would have had
this information as part of his spiritual portfolio. Yet he never taught or
even implied these things! How could someone ‘enlightened’ withhold such
valuable information if it were really true? And above all, why sacrifice
yourself when the sacrifice of horses would prove sufficient?
(8) The doctrine of karma and the Hindu belief in cycles
of creation seem to be in direct conflict with each other. (See
"Hinduism" under Worldviews Contrasted: Cycles, Ages and the
Ultimate State of the Universe.) How could a perfect age (the Krita
Yuga) in which dharma (the moral order) is completely manifested
in the human race, ever degenerate into anything less? There would only be
positive karma being sown. Likewise, how could this present corrupt age, the
Kali Yuga, with its overload of negative karma ever hope to be reborn
into another Krita Yuga, a golden era of utter perfection? What
happens to the huge amount of accumulated negative karma? Furthermore, if
the world in its present stage is ‘digressing’ into the ever-increasing,
miry depths of the Kali Yuga, how can souls caught in this evil age
ever hope to be found ‘progressing’ toward perfection and godhood? The
current of fate’s influence is carrying us down, not up. Yet this is the
cyclical pattern that is promoted in traditional Hinduism as the true
developmental, evolutionary process of this world.
(9) If reincarnation is true, then fatalism is true.
The hypothesis is this—"at the moment of reincarnation, the soul
(called the subtle body), after making the appropriate karmic calculations,
attaches itself to a developing embryo."6 This would make it
necessary for the future of that embryo to be absolutely predetermined, even
in minor details. Otherwise the calculations could not be dependable. This
leaves very little, if any room for freedom of choice or divine
intervention. Men and women are no more than puppets on karmic strings,
controlled by an inexorable and inescapable law. While appearing to be
masters of their own future, according to this standard, men and women are
really prisoners of their own past.
(10) If it is necessary for human beings to work out
their ‘karmic debt’ through many incarnations, Jesus’ death was in
vain and the crucifixion was not the pivotal, planetary event that
Christianity claims. If Jesus were ‘enlightened’ to the doctrine of
karma, as some insist, he would have known that people’s problems may take
numerous incarnations to resolve. An attempt to intervene for man on such a
grand scale would have been a gross disregard for the karmic process. By his
own admission, no man took Jesus’ life from him. He gave it up willingly,
knowing the infinite value of what he would accomplish. (See John 10:18.)
The very fact that he did this, expecting it to bring salvation to the
world, shows that the related doctrines of reincarnation and karma were not
part of his belief system. Therefore, these doctrines should not be a part
of our belief system either.
(11) If it is necessary for human beings to evolve to
perfection through numerous incarnations, then both the resurrection of
Jesus and the promised future resurrection of all believers, are stripped of
validity, value and purpose. Jesus’ physical body went through an
agonizing death on the cross. The same body was resurrected three days
later. This literal conquering of mortality is something no other religious
leader ever accomplished (though Sikhs claim something similar for their
founder, Guru Nanak). After Jesus ascended into heaven, he was glorified,
receiving a "glorious body," a celestial form that shines like the
sun in the kingdom of God. (Philippians 3:21) When the biblical
patriarch Job faced imminent death, he confessed to God, "All the days
of my appointed time will I wait till my change come." (Job 14:14)
The Psalmist David also foretold, "I shall be satisfied when I awake in
Your likeness." (Psalm 17:15) In other words, the ultimate hope
for God’s people is a final, physical change into the likeness of the Lord
himself.
While on earth, Jesus promised, "This is the will of
him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have
everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." (John
6:40) The Scripture also promises that he is able to "transform our
lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body." (Philippians
3:21) This will happen at the Second Coming of Christ, when the
resurrection of the dead takes place.
Jesus explained that after that great event, in the
future "kingdom of heaven," God’s people will sit down and
commune with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (the patriarchs of Judaism). (See
Matthew 8:11, Luke 13:28.) If these men are identifiable eternally as
these singular, previous personalities, then what happened to their multiple
personalities up to that point? Or what happened to any subsequent
personalities they bore later on? No, the implication is clear—they only
lived one life!
If reincarnation is true then the doctrine of the
resurrection becomes totally confused. If we wear a number of physical
bodies during numerous earthly sojourns, which one is resurrected?
Furthermore, if the soul ultimately evolves, through the reincarnation
process, into formless union with Brahman, then resurrection is unnecessary.
Yet resurrection was the pattern set forth in the prototype of all sons of
God. If Jesus, the firstborn Son of God, was literally resurrected from the
dead, he went through this experience to set a precedent and to give his
followers hope—hope that we, too, will eventually be resurrected from the
dead, in a literal sense.
If Jesus was really an ‘Avatar,’ and if he really
studied under Far Eastern masters, why did he teach such a doctrine that is
so contradictory to what they would profess. Considering these things, it
must be concluded that these two doctrines—"reincarnation versus
resurrection"—are completely incompatible. Therefore, only one belief
can be retained, at the expense of the other being discarded. (For more
information on this particular aspect, see the section directly preceding
this section, titled, "Which is right: reincarnation or
resurrection?".)
(12) Some worldviews teach man’s ultimate destiny is to
be liberated from ‘personhood’ in order to achieve an undifferentiated
union with an ‘impersonal’ Cosmic Force! For instance, in
philosophic Hinduism the implication is made that passing from a state of
being a ‘personal entity’ to the state of being one with an ‘impersonal
essence’ is actually ‘progress.’ However, if viewed logically, the
loss of personality would have to be gross spiritual digression, not
progression. Generally speaking, Buddhism forecasts an even more tragic,
spiritual reversal (though a Buddhist would counter that such a view is not
pessimistic, but realistic). In this worldview, an individual is finally
divested of all the trappings of ‘personhood’ when he or she enters paranirvana
(final extinction of personal existence). Embracing such a concept would
make some difficult or negative ‘personalities’ on the evolutionary
journey superfluous, expendable and, in a sense, even discardable—reducing
the value of the individual. Christianity, on the other hand, grants each
person infinite value and promises the perfecting of the individual
personality in a final glorified state, as well as an unending
love-relationship with a personal and eternal God. It must be said that such
a scenario alone constitutes true spiritual progress.
(13) Finally, true salvation is based, not on man’s
effort to reach perfection, but rather, on God’s effort to reach man.
The biblical worldview depicts man, caught in a sinful state, seeking God
and trusting the Creator to condescend to his level. In response to man’s
humility and repentance, God grants forgiveness, mercy, restoration, an
imparted status of righteousness and the gift of eternal life. The Far
Eastern worldview depicts man being awakened out of a state of ignorance,
striving to ascend to a place of perfection through human effort. Though
striving to live a perfect life is certainly commendable, it is not
possible. No human being can be entirely free of imperfections. The Bible
does encourage believers to be perfect even as the heavenly Father is
perfect, but it does not hinge salvation on the actual attaining of this
goal. (See Matthew 5:48.) A more thorough explanation of this
final argument immediately follows, under the heading, "Does
salvation come by human effort or by the grace of God?"
1 Yogi Bhajan, The Teachings of Yogi
Bhajan, The Power of the Spoken Word, p. 171, #673
2 Ibid., p. 177, #710.
3 Irving S. Cooper, Theosophy
Simplified (Wheaton, Illinois: The Theosophical Publishing House, sec.
Quest ed., 1989) p. 57.
4 Yogi Bhajan, The Teachings of Yogi
Bhajan, The Power of the Spoken Word, p. 173, #684.
5 F. Max Muller, Sacred Books of the
East (Oxford 1879-1910) Brahmana translation: 44:328; quoted in Robert E
Hume, The World’s Living Religions (New York: Charles Scribner’s
Sons, rev. ed.,1936) p. 23.
6 John H. Hick, "Reincarnation," The
Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology (Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania: Westminster Press, 1983) p. 491; quoted in Norman L. Geisler
& J. Yutaka Amano, The Reincarnation Sensation (Wheaton,
Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1986) p. 29.
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