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RE: karma and God

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Sriram Ranganathan • April 25, 2002 


Dear Members,

I think the answer probably lies in the freewill concept. Despite our past
karmA we are all endowed with freewill to act in a fair and just
manner -which means even if someone is born a rAkshasA (demon) by virtue (?)
of his/her past actions, one can change for the better through good deeds.
On the contrary, if the demon chooses to continue in the path of evil then
the Lord steps in to deliver the verdict.

"...is the factor that death by Lord dictated by Karma?" -

No, it is dictated by one's actions that are partially influenced by past
karmA and partially carried out of freewill.

"..Meaning that if a perosns karma is such that he will have a natural death
then Lord cannot kill him ? or can
perumAL over ride that. "

Though past karmA may dictate a natural death, freewill actions may override
it thereby necessitating Lord's intervention. Taken together it can be
argued that the result is due to the past and present karmAs.

Boons are given according to one's current actions - notwithstanding one's
destiny to receive such boons.

When we say things happen the way they are supposed to - it doesn't really
allude exclusively to pre-arranged karmA dynamics but indeed how logically
it would play out given the circumstances and the people involved.

Trust this helps.

Respectfully,
Sriram



-----Original Message-----
From: Mani Varadarajan [mailto:mani@alum.calberkeley.org]
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 9:26 PM
To: bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com
Subject: karma and God


Dear Members,

The following question was sent to me. Does anyone
have any insights?

------

Hi Mani,

I think that god punishes cos this is what we read in epics ... he does
punish ravana in a way. But that aside, what i want to know is, is the
factor that death by Lord dictated by Karma? Meaning that if a perosns karma
is such that he will have a natural death then Lord cannot kill him ? or can
perumAL over ride that. Perumals use of the instrument of karma - is it
according to His wish or is that dictated by the jIvatma's karma meaning
perumal will be able to kill/punish a person only if jIvAtma's karma has
something saying that hes destined to die in the hands of the Lord.

WE do have so many puraNaas where rakshasas ask for boons and perumAL finds
a loop hole and kills them - so now what does these things mean - can
someone who gives boon, like Lord Brahma can also over ride karma or is it
such that persons karma dictates that these things are destined to happen ?
Becasue as far as i understand perumAL can liberate you from karma etc but
he wasnt the one who started karma etc ... & karma is beginingless ...

----

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           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to:   bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com
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Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/
 

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