Kamma or the Law of Moral Causation

　　We are faced with a totally ill-balanced world. We perceive the inequalities and manifold destinies of men and the numerous grades of beings that exist in the universe. We see one born into a condition of affluence, endowed with fine mental, moral and physical qualities and another into a condition of abject poverty and wretchedness. Here is a man virtuous and holy, but, contrary to his expectation, ill-luck is ever ready to greet him. The wicked world runs counter to his ambitions and desires. He is poor and miserable in spite of his honest dealings and piety. There is another vicious and foolish, but accounted to be fortune”s darling. He is rewarded with all forms of favors, despite his shortcomings and evil modes of life.

　　Why, it may be questioned, should one be an inferior and another a superior

　　 Why should one be wrested from the hands of a fond mother when he has scarcely seen a few summers, and another should perish in the flower of manhood, or at the ripe age of eighty or hundred

　　 Why should one be sick and infirm, and another strong and healthy

　　 Why should one be handsome, and another ugly and hideous, repulsive to all

　　 Why should one be brought up in the lap of luxury, and another in absolute poverty, steeped in misery

　　 Why should one be born a millionaire and another a pauper

　　 Why should one be born with saintly characteristics, and another with criminal tendencies

　　 Why should some be linguists, artists, mathematicians or musicians from the very cradle

　　 Why should some be congenitally blind, deaf and deformed

　　 Why should some be blessed and others cursed from their birth

　　These are some problems that perplex the minds of all thinking men. How are we to account for all this unevenness of the world, this inequality of mankind

　　 Is it due to the work of blind chance or accident

　　There is nothing in this world that happens by blind chance or accident. To say that anything happens by chance, is no more true than that this book has come here of itself. Strictly speaking, nothing happens to man that he does not deserve for some reason or another.

　　Could this be the fiat of an irresponsible Creator

　　Huxley writes: "If we are to assume that anybody has designedly set this wonderful universe going, it is perfectly clear to me that he is no more entirely benevolent and just in any intelligible sense of the words, than that he is malevolent and unjust."

　　According to Einstein: "If this being (God) is omnipotent, then every occurrence, including every human action, every human thought, and every human feeling and aspiration is also his work; how is it possible to think of holding men responsible for their deeds and thoughts before such an Almighty Being.

　　"In giving out punishments and rewards, he would to a certain extent be passing judgement on himself. How can this be combined with the goodness and righteousness ascribed to him."

　　"According to the theological principles man is created arbitrarily and without his desire and at the moment of his creation is either blessed or damned eternally. Hence man is either good or evil, fortunate or unfortunate, noble or depraved, from the first step in the process of his physical creation to the moment of his last breath, regardless of his inpidual desires, hopes, ambitions, struggles or devoted prayers. Such is theological fatalism." — Spencer Lewis

　　As Charles Bradlaugh says: "The existence of evil is a terrible stumbling block to the theist. Pain, misery, crime, poverty confront the advocate of eternal goodness and challenge with unanswerable potency his declaration of Deity as all-good, all-wise, and all-powerful."

　　In the words of Schopenhauer: "Whoever regards himself as having become out of nothing must also think that he will again …

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