Why the Law of Karma Extends to Future Lives

 Why the Law of Karma Extends to Future Lives

Question:

The 'Karma' of this life should be accounted for in this life itself. Whatever we are getting in this life should be the result of the ‘Karma’ of this life.

But why is it not so?

 A Probable Answer:

Answers to philosophical questions about birth, death, life on earth, the afterlife, the necessity of creating the world, the purpose of this world, the way the world has been created, the existence of God, etc., depend upon assumptions.

Similarly, the question, ‘Why are the results of our Karmas not disbursed in the present life?’ can only be answered on the basis of certain assumptions.

For example, before deciding whether an action is right or wrong, we have to decide on the definition of right and wrong. Similarly, if we want to judge whether our step ahead is progress or regress, we have to decide what the meaning of progress is.

Coming back to the question before us, we have to make certain assumptions. The assumptions I am making before answering the question are – 1) God exists, 2) God has created this world, 3) the purpose of this world is to express its truth hidden in itself, and 4) the world, which began from inconscience, is growing to super-conscience. That is, the world is evolutionary.

If, for some reason, God had created the world in such a way that our Karmas are settled in our current lives, then we would have become insensitive to our future lives, and we would have focused totally on our current lives. As a result, the idea of rebirth would become infructuous; we would be living only for the present life while the Earth is working for the future. Thus, in a way, we would have been disconnected from the journey of the Earth, and would not have participated in her endeavour. Consequently, the Earth's goal would have been either much delayed or, in the worst case, derailed.

Again, if the ‘Law of Karma’ were obvious to us we would not seek deeper into the the truth of our being. Therefore, the ‘Law of Karma’ is hidden in a subtle world and unfolds itself through many lives, forcing us to go deeper into our lives.

But that is not all. Even underneath the ‘Law of Karma’, there is the ‘Law of the Soul’ that governs it. So even if we reach the ‘Law of Karma’, we will find that there remain some unanswered discrepancies that would force us to go deeper into our truth. This is what nature expects from us – that is, we must find our soul.

The ‘Law of Karma’ is not only hidden from us, but it has discrepancies built into it. Moreover, it is not the ultimate law.  It is just an intermediate law forcing us to move from the grosser life to the subtler life. Being dissatisfied after discovering the 'Law of Karma', we would have to go deeper to find the truth of our being, i.e. our soul.