In Marathi, there is a saying, करावे तसे भरावे! This is quite intuitive and relatable when we consider Newton’s third law, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you do good to others, you will be rewarded, however if you harm others, you will need to repay.
Just wondering, how this old saying stood against the test of time or for that matter even in history, was it fully applicable! Evil dictators in the past have tortured their peoples and still were able to rule and live dignified lives. Aurangzeb, who killed his own brothers to seek power and then tortured Chhatrapati Sambhaji and his friend to death, died peacefully at the age of 88. Yes, he did face a few setbacks, but his suffering was not in any way comparable to the wounds he had inflicted on millions. Hitler experienced a relatively painless death. Hirohito continued to rule Japan after WW2, while 150,000+ innocent civilians died in the atomic bombings. Now, you’ll start to doubt this saying.
Same is true with most imperial powers. During their reign, they had put the peoples in their colonies through immense hardships/torture, let alone talk about freedom. How are these powers doing now? They are still enjoying elite status in the world and are considered world powers while their former colonies are still trying to rise from their dark days.
If someone commits an illegal activity, there is a possibility of getting caught, but until they are caught, they will enjoy life whereas their victims have paid dearly, possibly with their lives! Even if the perpetrators are caught, the type of punishment they get is oftentimes not commensurate with their crimes. Even if we consider, capital punishment, it comes in too late generally because of the legal system and is mostly painless. Especially all the human rights activists will be talking about humane execution methods, regardless of how gory the crimes were and how many victims were involved. One of the prime accused in Nirbhaya’s case got out with minimalistic punishment as he was juvenile (17 years of age) at the time of the crime and is now roaming freely.
Unethical, but legal activities are hardly in the radar of punishment. Think of the exploitation of the workers while the company executives are reaping millions! While offering and taking bribes is generally illegal, until the actors are caught red handed, they will escape punishment. Look at how much the politicians and others have benefited from the money which actually belongs to millions of law abiding citizens. Those politicians are not repaying in any way, they are just amassing!
The lifetime pain inflicted on millions of farm animals and livestock also goes unpunished as neither the end consumers nor the animal farm workers have any remorse, because one group is ignorant about their sufferings (Ignorance is bliss) and the other group doesn’t care as they profit from the suffering.
Scriptures suggest that we should not limit the scope of when you repay, to the current birth. One will repay and repay commensurately over multiple rebirths. Imagine how many rebirths Hitler has to take to repay all his crimes if we use this philosophy! Further, the perpetrators always have an excuse - I am doing these crimes to so and so because in the past birth, he had done significant harm to me and he is repaying now, not that I will repay in the future! Imagine an oppressor in the previous birth faces untold suffering in their current birth. This individual won’t even understand why they’re suffering. Their suffering may lead them to commit more crimes!
If only the oppressor starts to remorse, will they get through penance. Punishment even if it comes after remorse may not always be commensurate with the crimes. The way society works, most likely their acts will go unpunished! It's just a function of the oppressors' conscience as when to pause, understand and remorse!
Now what option is left for the oppressed? Understand that your curses alone are not going to help the oppressors to repay. You need to actively combat their wrongdoings. This could be through simple gestures or rebuttals to alienation and all the way to reporting to authorities if you believe that would give them justice. While Tit for Tat will generally not resolve the issues, you need to be firm on your reactions and action plans.
Well written blog . It is a bad combination of Money and Power earned via unethical practices by the incompetent persons who unfortunately rule over the masses of inocent peoples who are left to suffer.
ReplyDeleteAnish - without relying on the vedic scriptures one cannot make sense of this topic. However you are right that it is everyone's dharma to "actively combat" adharma.
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