Sometimes, life doesn’t feel random—it feels like a response.
I realized that being on a righteous path is very important. The most important one, in fact. Not for anyone else’s sake, but for our own well-being.
I noticed cause and effect several times in my own life, as well as in the lives of others. This realization first came to me when I was fined unfairly by a policeman for a traffic violation that I had not committed at all.
But I quickly understood that this was for a different violation that I did commit but got away with without being noticed. Since this was only a few days apart, I could relate to it. This was not a random connection I was imagining. I rarely violate traffic rules, so when I do, I remember.
Working as a manager and being personally close to many employees reporting to me, I was able to relate to some of the difficulties they faced. I could connect with how they managed their lives both at career and in personal lives.
One family that I know fairly well has undergone difficulties that no one should have to face within reason. It was an extreme case. But when I reflected on some of their actions over their lifetime, I was able to relate again.
You see, when you make a deed that affects others deeply, the result comes back with equal force. This universe primarily functions on this principle.
As in Newton's third law, every action results in an action with equal force in the opposite direction. In Hinduism, we call it karma phala. Karma is action, and phala means result. Every action will have a reaction.
If you believe in God, understand that He gives you an examination first, and based on the result, teaches you a lesson—a lesson that you may not forget.
But if one chooses to ignore the lesson and continues to fail with every examination that comes, the lessons become harder each time. The more we ignore, the tougher our life gets.
We need to be wise enough to relate every negative thing that happens in our life to our karma, or at least understand that this could be a test given by God—and that we need to come out morally right.
Especially when our deeds affect multiple people negatively, the consequences can be devastating. A person may have some opinions of his or her own. We all do. But if our belief and the act based on that comes in the way of affecting others adversely, then we need to appreciate that we are not on the righteous path. We have no right to decide how others should live or believe in.
Being on a righteous path is essential—for selfish reasons.
For example, when you give charity with the genuine belief that it will help someone, the good deed returns as a good result. But if charity is given with the expectation that it will come back to you, then the deed is incomplete as true charity, and the result may not be the same.
If there is one lesson that I have learned in my 60+ years, it is this: to strive to be on a righteous path—the way I understand it, of course.
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