Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

[Guest guest]

From

your views Why do 'bad' things befall us? How does all that come into

play? Is everything karma or can anything just happen? How would a KC

devotee deal with let's say he's on the road preaching and someone stabs

him badly, how would you view that? Or would you say that while in KC it

would not be possible to be stabbed because Krishna is watching over

us...

 

by Madhudvisa dasa

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Nice question. You have brought in two points. (1) generally

speaking "Why do bad things happen" and (2) "do bad things happen to

devotees." We know the soul is eternal. We are on a journey. And this

life is but one small step in that journey. You could think of a motion

picture which is on big, big reels of film made up of millions of

frames. So our journey is like the entire motion picture and this life

is but one frame out of the total movie. So what happens in this frame

is a continuation of what happened in the previous frame and what we do

in this frame will effect what happens in the next frame. So bad things

do not happen to good people. They may have been good in this life but

if bad things are happening we can see it is the result of some bad

action they have performed in the past; in this life or in previous

lives.

There is no such thing as "chance." In Sanskrit there is not even a

word that means "chance." The concept does not even exist. The closest

thing they have is "adrsti" which means "the cause is unknown." So if

something bad and unexpected happens they will not say it happened "by

chance" they will say "the cause is unknown." Which means it happened

for some reason but we do not know what that reason is...

 

As far as a devotee is concerned Krishna is looking after him, that

is sure, but how much of a devotee are we really? It is a question of

surrender. We may be "a devotee" but we many not be completely

surrendered to Krishna. But a devotee is in Krishna's hands. He does not

mind what is Krishna's plan. If it is Krishna's plan that he should be

stabbed then that is all right. But he will think I am being stabbed

because of my sinful actions in the past and it is Krishna's mercy. I

really deserve a lot worse. Krishna has minimized my suffering so

much... Somehow a devotee always thinks it is Krishna's mercy...

But that does not mean that if we are devotees and we see someone

coming to stab us we will just put our arms up in the air and say: "It's

Krishna's mercy" and let him stab us. No. A devotee can fight also. If

someone is coming to attack him then he can protect himself of course.

After all this body belongs to Krishna and we are using it to serve

Krishna so if someone is trying to damage it if they succeed that will

make it more difficult for us to serve Krishna. So we have to try and

stop them. Also if they are attacking the other devotees we have to

stop them.

So we are not, like the Buddhists, non-violent. Sometimes violence

is necessary. Actually in the Vedic system there is a whole class of

men called ksatryias. That means "to protect from hurt." So these

ksatryias are meant for using violence to protect the other members of

the society when it is necessary. Non-violence is not a practical

philosophy.

 

So on to your second point of "do bad things happen to devotees."

The answer is that "bad things" certainly do happen to devotees

sometimes. Look at Lord Jesus Christ. His followers nailed him onto a

cross. Or at least his followers did not protest while he was being

nailed onto a cross. That is quite bad. And in the history of Krishna

consciousness some very great souls have had to undergo some very

difficult situations. But Krishna does protect his devotees, that is for

sure. There is one case of Haridas Thakura. He was a great devotee and

follower of Lord Caitanya who is Krishna himself and who appeared in

India five hundred years ago. Because Haridas was a great devotee many

people were attracted to him and he became very famous and highly

respected. He became even more famous than the King of that time. So the

King became very envious of Haridas. He did many things. But one thing

is he had Haridas arrested and taken to 22 different market places and

had him severely whipped in every market place. Such a punishment would

ordinarily be a death sentence as no ordinary man could survive such a

whipping. But Haridas said after it that he felt no pain. And later on

the devotees saw on the back of Lord Caitanya all the whip marks. So

Lord Caitanya had protected his devotee Haridas...

There is also Prahlada Maharaja, the son of a great demon,

Hiranyakasipu. Hiranyakasipu was trying to train Prahlada to be a big

demon and sent him to the school with all the other demon's children to

be taught politics and diplomacy. But Prahlada was a devotee of Krishna

from birth and as soon as the teachers went out of the classroom he

would jump up and preach Krishna consciousness to all the other boys in

the school. So gradually the whole school, all sons of demons, started

to become devotees of Krishna.... So it is a long story but

Hiranyakasipu became very angry at Prahlada because he had become a

devotee of Krishna and he tried to kill Prahlada in so many ways. He

threw Prahlada off a big high cliff but the rocks at the bottom turned

into feathers and cushioned Prahlada's fall. He threw Prahlada into a

pit full of deadly snakes and scorpions. But they did not bite Prahlada.

He had a huge elephant trample on Prahlada. But he was not hurt. He put

Prahlada in a big pot of boiling oil. But Prahlada did not die... So he

was completely frustrated. And back in his palace he asked Prahlada:

"Where do you get your strength from?" And Prahlada replied "The same

place you get your strength from, Krishna..." Hiranyakasapu could see

Prahlada was not at all afraid of him and he knew it was because of

Prahlada's faith in Krishna. So he asked Prahlada: "Is your God

everywhere?" Prahlada said: "Yes" So looking at a huge pillar in the

palace Hiranyakasipu said: "Is your God in this pillar?" Prahlada said:

"Yes." So Hiranyakasapu took a big hammer and smashed the pillar and

Lord Krishna, in the form of half-man, half-lion appeared out of the

pillar. And Krishna as Lord Narasimhadeva killed the demon Hiranyakasapu

and saved His pure devotee Prahlada Maharaja...

But everything in connection with a pure devotee is an arrangement

of Krishna. There is one verse that if Krishna wants someone to live no

one can kill him and if Krishna wants someone to die no one can save

him."

So I hope it is of some help. Basically there is no chance. Nothing

happens by chance. There is a cause for everything, "Innocent" people do

not die horrible deaths. The cause is generally our bad karma, bad

things happen to us because of the bad things we have done in the past

in this life and in previous lives. There is nothing an ordinary person

can do about this. The analogy is given of a seed. You plant a seed and

after some time it will germinate and grow. So it is with our sinful

activities. It is like planting a seed in our heart. In due course of

time that seed will germinate and grow and we will have to then suffer

the reaction to that sinful activity. Like seeds these sinful reactions

take different amounts of time to germinate. Some, like a big tree, may

take many many years, others, like wheat, may germinate quite quickly.

And if, at the time of death, we still have these seeds within our

hearts waiting to germinate we have to take another birth in the

material world so they can germinate and we will enjoy or suffer the

results... And when we take another birth we will again do so may sinful

and pious activities which will sow more seeds in our heart and we will

have to come back to the material world again and again and again...

practically forever.

The way out of course is chanting Hare Krishna. This chanting

destroys the seeds of our sinful activities in our hearts so they will

not germinate in the future and if we can keep ourselves engaged in

Krishna conscious activities we will not sow more seeds in our hearts so

at the time of death there will be no seeds in our hears waiting to

germinate so we do not have to take another birth in the material

world--we can go back home back to Godhead and get our original

eternally youthful spiritual body full of knowledge and bliss... And all

just by chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare

Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare... So why not chant

Hare Krishna and be happy?