Karma and Life

“Karma is a concept in Hinduism which explains causality through a system where beneficial effects are derived from past beneficial actions and harmful effects from past harmful actions, creating a system of actions and reactions throughout a person's reincarnated lives" (Wikipedia)

I sometimes wonder what is the logic behind ‘Karma’ if it is what really happens. This has lot of importance of Hindu Philosophy. Even westerners have given similar philosophy about life and death, good and evil…I happened to read a few books by Brian Weiss (Psychiatrist and Past Life Regression Expert) like Only Love is Real; Many Lives, Many Masters (which are based on true incidents), there also the Karma philosophy was reiterated.

What perplexes me that what is the point of punishing anyone for a wrong, which he/she cannot remember that s/he did! I won’t talk about getting rewards for the things; you cannot remember because who minds having chocolate, which you haven’t purchased. I mean it is like when I was in my nappies, I bit someone’s finger (innocuously) and as a punishment, I am getting a tight slap on my face by a third person when I am thirty year old (And Hell, I don’t even remember if I really did that, or someone is just slapping me just because s/he doesn’t like my face!). The ‘Karma’ thing is even worse, it punishes you for the wrong you did in other life and makes you culpable for the thing, hardly anyone can make you remember (until and unless you have a real good bank balance to afford you a Brian Weiss).

Whenever something bad happens to me, or nothing good happens to me (which is all in same thing and it happens quite frequently), few people tell me that it’s because of my ill past Karma in past life and I should do extra good things to nullify the bad effect. Perhaps they say this so that I don’t feel that life is not fair. But problem is that thinking about this ‘Karma’ effect, I feel this is more unfair because I don’t feel guilty at all for the past life doings(which obviously I don’t know) and I feel it is very unjust to penalize for the sin, which I haven’t committed, while others getting an extra pie every time, for the good they don’t remember they did (neither do I remember!). Even if I come to know what bad I did in the past life(even heinous things like I murdered… plundered...), I don’t think I will feel bad as it is not something in my conscious, it will be like someone is telling me bullshit story about me (since I think I cannot kill anyone or steal/plunder in ‘this’ life!)

Perhaps even if it is true, it makes life more unfair, because if this illogical rewarding/punishment is based on some philosophy of the destiny or the Supreme, then also it doesn’t give me any relief. It would have been better if the life’s good and bad are happening, just because they had to, there are no reasons behind all this. It’s so unreasonable that some illogical way of doing things was devised some day, majority agreed thinking it profound, it was declared to be best way and we unasked (for the opinion) living beings are at the receiving end of all this nonsense!