"I and my" The law of karma

By Nitya-lila pravista Om Visnupada 108 Sri Srimad Bhakti Sadhak Muni Goswami Maharaja. Second part of a lecture delivered on the public program.

Question: In this world, there are many people with different desires and different activities. There are good people and bad people, what is happening to them after leaving the body?

Srila BS Muni Maharaja: Those who perform bad activities, those who are harming others, they will take birth in a body where they cannot harm others, or they have to suffer in the next life. They will be punished. Those who perform good activities they may go to higher planetary systems. The Christians call it heaven. There you may live a long lifetime, ten thousand years, and you will enjoy it. Your body does not become old, and not getting sick. But you will have to come back here to this material world. This is not the aim of what Vaisnavas want. According to our activities we will take birth in the next life.

But there´s one thing, we may see a tiger, a lion, or a cat who is eating a mouse, or a lion that is attacking other animals, or even humans, and you may think that they are going to hell, but this is not so. They are not bound, only humans are bound. Those who can decide freely what to do, they are responsible for their activities. Animals, they are not responsible for their activities. There are also some people, for example those that take birth in Greenland, these people are born there because of their karma, their past activities. These people cannot be vegetarians because of where they live. These people will also not get so much reaction for these activities. Everything depends on the state of consciousness.

Somebody who knows that eating and killing animals is bad, because they are also living entities, knows that the animals feel pain. Like a human also feels when you hurt them. Those who know this, and they kill anyway; they will suffer very much in their next life. But those who are ignorant, they are almost like animals; they will not suffer from these things so much because they are ignorant.

Regarding karma, or action and reaction, is very complicated and we cannot calculate it from our standpoint. But we should understand that our life now is based on our past life, and it´s just continuing. So, bad people will take forms in their next life in the animal society. If someone is very harmful to others they will take birth as a tree or a stone, or first they go to a hellish planet, to Yamaraj. They will be punished very much. There is a description of how they will be punished in the Srimad Bhagavatam.

For every action, there is a reaction. We must understand this. It is very logical, scientific. If I say to someone, "you are such a nice man," this saying has a reaction, it makes you feel comfortable. If I say, "you are so foolish, and you are….some bad words", then you will feel very uncomfortable, and maybe punch me in the face. All these things have a reaction. Whatever I do has a reaction, accordingly. So it is very easy to calculate what our future will be, by looking at our present, and seeing the past.

If you are not doing good you will get a bad life. If you are good in your heart, and suffering now, this is because of the past. In the future we may get a good life. We should not be afraid. Everything is perfectly arranged by the higher authorities in this universe. Everything will come. Punishment will come to those who do bad things, and those who do good things will get their fruit accordingly. This is not under our control. We should not think that we are the controllers. We have not chosen this body. We have not chosen to take birth here, or there. We did not choose to be a man or woman, intelligent or not intelligent. Likewise, we also can´t choose our future. It will be arranged according to the laws of nature.