Hinduism tells you, and now even the West has started believing it (Instant Karma — John Lennon — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqgTSk9Aq50), that there is such a thing as Karma because of which we enjoy and suffer.
While that karma can be something we do in this current life, which obviously all of us are doing, that is yielding the joy or suffering, and when despite our best efforts to have joy through the choices we make and the actions we undertake we end up suffering, we are told that is because of our past life karma that we are now having to reap its consequences in this life.
Let us take the first part of the thesis in the above statement, the karma that we do in this life which is yielding joy or suffering.
On what basis do we do that karma or undertake any action or make any choices in our lives?
Obviously, any choice or action is preceded by some reasoning, where we consult our knowledge/wisdom acquired throughout our lives until that point in time, consult our experiences, consult what we are wanting out of life, consult the possibilities and constraints in front of us and then come to a decision and act.
Note that all of the above are dependent on the genes we have been bestowed at birth and the way the brain was shaped in the womb, over neither of which we have or had any say or control.
Plus, we did not choose where or to whom we were born — the historical epoch, the state of civilization, the country, the society, the class, the religion, the caste, the economic status, the parents — in short, the initial environment we were born into, all of which in interaction with our genes and brain made us into who we are in the present moment.
Then, when the entity that is choosing and acting is not one we have “created”, then how can what it chooses or does be “our” choices and decisions.
Now, here the karma theory pushes back and says, “No, no, all those factors and circumstances you say were ‘given’ to you and not of your own choice or making were indeed ‘given’ to you because that is what you ‘deserved’ based on your past life’s karma.”
But, what my logically retarded friend Mr. Karma ji forgets is that the same objections that I raised against this life’s karma being mine can be raised against previous life’s karma.
The foolish Mr. Karma will say, “No, no, your past life factors and circumstances were shaped by the life prior to that one.”
That is a bit like that “turtles all the way down” thingy:
“Turtles all the way down” is a famous expression for the problem of infinite regress, meaning a chain of reasoning or support that has no end or bottom.
- The World Turtle Myth: The phrase comes from an old story where the Earth is flat and rests on the back of a giant World Turtle. When someone asks what supports that turtle, the answer is another even bigger turtle below it—continuing downward forever (“turtles all the way down”).
- Philosophy: Thinkers use the phrase in philosophy and science to show how an explanation can demand another explanation without ever reaching a final foundation (an infinite regress).
Now, we do know what that bottom turtle is, right? Our very first birth as a human.
Now, in that very first birth of ours as a human being where we were born without any previous life before that, on what basis were we given those genes, that brain developed in the womb, and the circumstances/environment where we were born, all of which led to our very first action that then impelled us on a some inevitable trajectory whose terminating point in the present 2026 is us, me writing this and you the reader reading this.
So, you see, how absurd this karma theory is, which unnecessarily inflicts on us the sense of doership and makes us unnecessarily live with angst, despair, guilt and whatnot.
Nip that sense of doership in the bud.
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