Fwd: [haindavakeralam] Fwd: Why do bad things happen to good people, even devotees?

June 29, 2006

Note: forwarded message attached.

Why do bad things happen to good people, even devotees?**********************************************************************Q) Even after doing lot of pious activities, devotional services one stillundergoes lot of suffering? Why? What is the solution? Good people go

through bad things and Bad people go through good things? Why?Ans) The root cause of suffering is ignorance, which results in sin. Whensomeone has a contagious disease, we can invariably conclude that they must

have contracted the infection somehow, even if it may not be apparentwherefrom, how and so forth. Similarly, when there is some suffering we canconclude that there must have been some past sinful act committed by the

person in question, either in this or a previous lifetime, knowingly orunknowingly.Everyone in this material world, even those who are pious and reasonablygood-hearted, still performs many sinful activities. Even seemingly

harmless acts such as our cooking and eating food or even in walking orbreathing, we cause suffering to other living entities, what to speak ofother acts of deliberate harshness in speech & action, and our exploitation

of Krishna's energies for selfish ends! Each of these acts bears consequentreactions.Pious activities have their own good karmic reactions (viz. " punya " ) butpunya, even volumes of it, does not negate or counteract the sinful

reactions. One has to both enjoy the results of punya as well as sufferwhatever sinful reactions are due them. A good example is the story of KingNrga found in the Krsna Book (Ch 64) When we see a so-called " bad " person

flourishing, it is to be understood that they are simply reaping theresults of some past piety.If any activity involves some good or bad karma, are we to resign thatsuffering is inevitable? No, Bhagavad-Gita gives a solution to this

predicament: all work should be done as a sacrifice to Vishnu for such workhas no pious/sinful reactions and causes no bondage. (Please study BG 3.9-14, 4.31) There are also specific ways by which our past sinful reactions

can be countered and the best of these methods is performing puredevotional service by taking shelter and careful guidance of pure devotees.You can find a more detailed discussion of this topic in the Inquiries into

Absolute - Digest 2 Q 12, Digest 4 Q2, Digests 117 and 120.(http://vcal.iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?ndx=132)You have raised the question that even after performing much devotional

service, one may experience some suffering. But this suffering is not thesame as that of an ordinary fruitive worker. What seems like suffering inthe case of fully surrendered devotees like the Pandavas or Srila

Prabhupada is in fact not at all suffering, but a type of transcendentalexchange with the Lord. But even in the beginning stages, pure devotionalservice brings relief from all distress, as explained in NOD Ch1. You can

find further discussion on this point in http://vcal.iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest53from Q & A with HH Rompada swami maharaj