Any Karma in America

A detailed Summary of Any Karma in America

The idea of justice is a prominent issue for all societies. Courts have been established to censor the actions of accused persons and it has long been a major theme to be dealt with in many societies throughout history. One of the first cultures to describe the issue of justice is ancient India. By 500 B. C., the Brahman ideas had changed from centering thought on prayer to the idea of justice and philosophy. This new way of thinking on justice and love for knowledge established the idea of karma, being considered as the good or bad consequences of an action. Without including the belief of reincarnation of the early Indian society, karma will be described in terms of an individual's life before he or she dies rather than influencing the next life after death as the Indians believed. Therefore, karma will be described as an action of an individual influencing the future of that individual before his or her death. Today, the idea of karma can be considered in the life of every individual in American society, but the beliefs ancient Indians exulted cannot be seen in the consequences of actions when considering the society of today.

In first describing karma in ancient India, consequences in the future (or the next

life in Indian beliefs) were based on the individual's present actions, exemplifying a cause and effect relationship. Good deeds would lead to a better and more prosperous life, while bad deeds would lead to a less prosperous future life. Therefore, this Indian idea of justice is based on an individual getting what he or she deserved as the result of an action, a good result with virtuous actions and a bad result with fiendish actions. One of the shortcomings of early India's idea of karma is the absence of reasoning accounting for good things happening to bad people and bad things to good people.

Another flaw with the belief of karma in our society can be seen through no reasoning for bad things happening to good people and good things happening to bad people. For example, a good friend plays baseball at the collegiate level in North Dakota. He also seems to exhibit the skills necessary to play at the professional level. Many young athletes have hopes of one day playing at the professional level, making professional players prominent and popular role models. With the belief in karma in relation to these elite role models, it could be inferred that Indians consider this skillful collegiate athlete very righteous in his actions, and thus had been gifted with the ability due to virtue, although this is not the case. In fact, the same athlete and his female pregnant partner continued with an abortion, which can very easily be understood a diabolic and evil action to the fetus.

Even though the actions resulted in consequences, a person could escape from his or her transgressions through two ways. The first being asceticism and the other is meditation. Asceticism is withdrawing from society by avoiding any pleasures in life, while mediation allowed one to think intensely one a subject. The first tortured the body, and thus the mind, while the second would erase the desire of a bad action through deep concentration, and and the absence of this desire thus illuminated the action altogether.

The next example deals with the opposite situation of unfortunate disasters in the lives of good people. A young couple, being married about 5 years, resides in the southwestern part of Georgia

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Approximate Word count = 1488
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History