Talk:Objections to the Doctrine of Karm and Responses:Extreme Suffering and Karm
By Vishal Agarwal
Question: We see that some people experience unbearable, extreme suffering. For example, someone who has chronic pain that cannot be controlled even with the help of medical intervention, or a child who is abused. Even if they suffer due to their past Karm, is it not cruel on the part of Bhagavān to insist that they should suffer unbearably? Why can’t He just forgive these people, or spread out their suffering?
Response: Extreme suffering is not mitigated by philosophizing but by compassionate action to counter it. Even though extreme pain during a lifetime is a mere blip in the overall eternal journey of the Ātman, it is rather insensitive to focus only on the role of prior Karm as its cause.
But what are the alternate possibilities?
- Life brings us pain and joy randomly,
- Bhagavān is capricious and vindictive,
- The individual suffering deserved his fate,
- Or — it is an opportunity for the rest of us to step in and help the suffering individual and eliminate any visible causes (e.g., criminals) of that suffering.
The capacity of human beings to commit evil acts appears to be vast, and so is the resultant store of suffering. An adult Bhakta, who has accepted a painful condition that he cannot change, may draw some consolation from the understanding that his worldly tribulations are burning off past Karm that has held him back from spiritual progress.
Father, I desire Mokṣa. Therefore, may I become one with you, and may I not be reborn in this world again. When I am dying, may my intellect constantly dwell on you. May I always remain devoted to you, and may I always seek refuge in you. May I constantly remember you. Due to evil Karm that I have committed in my past lives, may various kinds of illness torment my body and different sorrows afflict me so that I get freed of the fruit of all my evil Karm. Bhagavān, I have remembered you so that I am not reborn. Therefore, I request again that the fruit of all my past Karm gets exhausted, and may I not owe a debt to anyone. Whatever Karm I have done in my previous lives, may their fruit take the form of various diseases and dwell in my body because I want to shake off all my karmic debts and attain the supreme abode of Viṣṇu. — Mahābhārata (Southern recension) 12.209