REVENGE OF THE NAKED PRINCESS

A Dark Tale on Forced Conversions

By Oswald Pereira

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All this boils down to the principle of cause and effect, which is what Karma basically is. This is quite a scientific, yet commonsense concept. For isn’t it commonsense that tells you that if you plant weeds in your garden, it won’t yield flowers. You don’t even need to know the law or concept of Karma to understand this.

Karma has been propagated as a tenet by various religions so that people do good and shun evil. But it was never meant to be used to preach  punishment or divine retribution.

When the faithful are bluntly offered a bad or a good deal in this life or the next life because of bad or good Karma, it smacks of both religious and spiritual immaturity. Imagine standing before a child with a cane and a candy, and saying, “Be bad and you get this cane on your palms; be good and you receive this candy!”

That’s not the way to teach goodness to a child. But this is how, it seems, Karma is often being taught to the faithful. It’s no wonder then that many of us are turning Karma upside down. A lot of people today seem to be obsessed with Karma and are attributing much in life to it. Karma has become like a bogey and many want to  jump on its bandwagon.

Karma is a good concept. It’s good to know that good begets good and evil will only invite more evil and sorrow. So far so good. But when you start using or rather misusing the concept of Karma to explain too many things, it can become an obsession, like a  fetish.

A lot of poor people suffer in this world because of suppression and oppression of fellow human beings. This has nothing to do with karma.

Yet,  many believe that the poverty and misery of poor people is caused by bad Karma. It may be not right to give alms to a beggar, but to scorn the beggar and attribute his plight to his own bad Karma shows a lack of  compassion. An uncompassionate person doesn’t reflect good Karma.

The poor are not poor because of their Karma, but because of an exploitative society, where the poor keep getting poorer and the rich, richer.

Why are some women exploited so badly by men? Is it because of the bad Karma of women? Why are some lucky to be independent and free from exploitation by men? Is it because of their own good Karma? This has nothing to do with Karma but it is because of the way society treats women. Yet when women, for instance, suffer domestic violence or  sexual violence, it’s not uncommon for some to attribute it to Karma.

Karma, of course, has its place. But we should be careful when talking about Karma, discussing it and analysing cause and effect.

 Nishkama Karma — selfless or desire-less action — the key teaching of the Bhagvad Gita, reflects the basic concept or essence of  Karma.

But the best Karma is love—in thought, word and deed—and its more sublime manifestation…unconditional love.

When we love God more than we love ourselves and we love our neighbour(s) as we would love God and our own selves, the law of Karma may be rendered redundant and obsolete.

I recall in my childhood, along with my friends, climbing the banyan tree in the centre of our village, to get a better, panoramic view from above. Behind the banyan tree was a small Shiv Mandir. After school, we would meet and spend joyful hours under the shade of that banyan tree. 

The only day when we didn’t sit under the banyan tree was on the annual “Wad Puja”. Elegant women, in their best finery would go around the banyan tree, wrapping it with thread, offering aartis to the sacred tree, praying that their husbands have a long and healthy life like the strong and sturdy tree.

Barely 30 feet away was the village well. Both children and adults swam in the village well. Labourers working in mills and factories, who didn’t have water connections at home, used to bathe at the well.

When Catholics in the village got married, they would draw water from the well as it was an age-old custom. The village well would be adorned with white strips of paint to mark the occasion. Before going to Church, the marriage party would go the Shiv Mandir to pay obeisance.

On the outer edge of the village was a cluster of tamarind trees. We could climb any one of them and help ourselves to mouth watering tamarind.

Our parents allowed us to freely roam the countryside, as the rural area was as safe as home. There were no criminals hovering around and kidnapping was unheard of. Hardly any vehicles plied on the dirt roads. When we were bored sitting around the banyan tree after school, we would trek to Pokhran several kilometers away to pluck succulent jamuns that grew in abundance along the pipeline on the town’s outskirts.

When we wanted to explore the town, we took along our “garandas” or wheels, made of iron that we propelled with hooks at the end of long slim metal rods. The convoy of “garandas” of a bunch of kids, clattered along without hindrance. There were no killer buses or trucks on the town’s roads, and cars were few.

Boys and girls played together in my village. There were no class or religious distinctions. Among my male friends with whom we played games like ‘hu, tu, tu’, ‘kho, kho’ and village cricket with a soft ball were two brothers, Anand and Baloo. They used to stay in a hut on the outskirts of the village. Their mother worked as a domestic help in various homes and their father didn’t work, because he was a drunkard. The boys never went to school.

My mother used a kerosene stove to cook food then. My grandmother, who survived my grandfather, lived in a neighbouring house. She cooked on firewood and used clay pots. Grandma’s food was very tasty. Water stored in “matkas” in those days tasted fresh like nectar.

Big sprawling buildings have come up, where once was my village. A few ‘villagers’ have retained their old independent homes. We too have retained our independent home after some renovation. The rest have sold off their properties to builders. The banyan tree and the small Shiv Mandir, however, still stand tall.

Those were the days when life was idyllic and simple. The good old days will never return. That’s the past. But a great future lies ahead.

http://www.speakingtree.in/5hd23js95f66vws8mvmi5xdeu/blog/Goodbye-good-old-days-a-great-future-lies-ahead