Hello and welcome to episode 91 of The Ask Sri Vishwanath Show. Today I want to talk about God’s justice and how Krishna handles the karma of 7 billion people.
Today’s question comes from Laura and she says “I have always been fascinated with the law of karma and how it works. Who manages the karma of 7 billion people and how do they do it?”
Thanks for the question Laura. I think we could talk about this all day and still not finish but I will try to give you some valuable insight into it.
Krishna says “the might being accepts nobody’s sin nor merit. Knowledge is shrouded in ignorance hence all living beings are deluded.” So Krishna does not accept sin or merit. Human beings are shrouded in ignorance so this is where the term maya comes from. All our thoughts are only appearances and the only thing that exists is the consciousness.
Database
So the entire karma is an appearance. I want you to look at it like a database of 7 billion people. Think of a camera. When you buy it comes with the intelligence of the camera. There is the lens and it already has the ability to take pictures and store them. Our consciousness is the same. It has an intelligence embedded into it. To take a picture you must press a button on the camera and with the intelligence of the consciousness there is also a click that forms a picture. Every impression, every thought and act is recorded on your consciousness and stored there. It is called karmic impressions of the Jiva.
In this world there is health, money relationships and spirituality. In the lens of the consciousness very event gets sorted into these four sections. Think of them like folders in the computer. All our impressions are stored in them. It happens automatically because the consciousness already has the intelligence.
It will take each impression and decide whether it is sattvic (divine), Tamasic (intellectual) or rajasic (Instinctual) and then it will be filed accordingly to create your image. It does this for each folder in health, money relationships and spirituality. The way you react to each of these situations will decide what way these gunas points are allocated. If you act in a divine sattvic way more will be sorted in this folder and the same goes for tamasic and rajasic. It all happens automatically.
Profile
So as you go through life your image is clarified and your profile is updated. Think of it like Facebook. They have 1 billion users so how do they keep all that information stored? They have a central server but they manage profiles of people too. Everything is there, your name, age, interests and photographs. When you use the site you begin to build a profile for every year that you have been on it. When this happens to one person it automatically expands from there.
When you die this profile enters into a new body. These profiles are mixed and matched based on your gunas points. So if you are high in sattvic you may be matched to a better body. If you struggled with money in a past life you may be comfortable or even wealthy in this one. So the timeline chosen for you will depend of the karmic profile of your previous lives and the vibrations you have generated. This profile will also determine who you meet and the things you do in this lifetime and the next.
Automated
Remember God does not control this. This all automatically happens in the consciousness. It is self-recording and self-sorting. When you break it down it’s really not that complicated.
So again let’s take the example of surfing the internet. Your browsing is monitored by cookies, which is small piece of code that is dropped onto the site to monitor your activity. It is used to target people and display adverts directly aimed at them. This is why when you visit a site like amazon that same site seems to follow you everywhere in all major sites afterwards. They are trying to entice you back so you will buy something. The same thing happens in our consciousness. It tracks us as we live out our lives.
So your profile is created and out of that comes your needs, desires and your avatar. Then a new body is given to you based on your previous profile and the timeline. It runs smoothly and endlessly. So like there is a god of fire and a god of time there is also a God who manages these systems. This God is called Chitragupta. This God manages all of these servers. He doesn’t need to create it because the intelligence already exists within the consciousness. God creates the system but we run the show.
Dharma
This is why you should always follow Dharma. Because this intelligence is always inside you. Always do the right thing. No matter how horrible your past has been your impressions are still being recorded and you will still meet good people and good things will still happen for you. Never feel sad that things are not going well for you. Remember that you have a past but you also have a future.
In spirituality Krishna says “to men who exclusively meditate on me and worship me elaborately I bring them prosperity and security.” So there is a slight exception where you call on Krishna directly.
Krishna and the king
I want to leave you with a story. Krishna and Arjun were visiting the king because he had called on them. They sat in the lobby for over an hour waiting for the king. The king was busy in a meeting but Arjun was perplexed. He couldn’t believe that Krishna himself had come yet the king didn’t have time for him. Krishna remained serene and calm and willed Arjun to do the same.
After 30 more minutes had passed Arjun got very angry and told the messenger to find out where the king was. When he returned the messenger told him that the king will be in meeting for the rest of the day. They were given a gift and told to come back another day.
Arjun was wild with anger. He could not believe a man of God could be treated in this way. Before leaving Krishna blessed the king wishing him more wealth and prosperity. Arjun couldn’t understand why Krishna had blessed him even though he had been made to wait. Krishna said that he will understand why.
There next stop was with a man who lived in a small hut, who was a devotee of Krishna. Krishna stayed there for 5 days and the man served him, giving him what little he had. All he had was a son and a cow whose milk he would sell. After 5 days they left but Krishna did not bless the man. 5 days later the man’s cow and his son died.
Arjun was devastated. He said that he could not tolerate this. He could not understand why Krishna would give the rude king his blessings yet the man had to lose his cow and son. Krishna said that he had done this to speed up the man’s devotion towards him. All of his blocks were gone and he would have nothing but devotion. He had blessed the king because that was what he needed at the time. If he did not give it to him then he would still be seeking it and he wanted to speed up his devotion as well. The two of them no longer had any blocks and could find him immediately.
Arjun just looked at him and Krishna smiled.
I hope I answered your questions. You keep asking questions and I’ll keep answering them.