| This, the most
important doctrine in Hindu religion, is the application in the moral sphere of the law of
conservation of energy, and indeed both may be looked upon as parts of one law. Karma is
the rule of the law, so to say, in the spiritual world. Cause and effect must be
equivalent. As death is only disintegration of the body, and not of the Soul, the law of
cause and effect, so far as the Soul is concerned, continues to operate beyond death. The
death of the body does not operate as a bankruptcy court. The old account is carried over.
The tiniest pebble thrown into water produces a
ripple. The disturbance is carried onward in ever-widening circles on the water. One
ripple may cut across, add itself to, and be merged in another, increasing or reducing it,
but not the tiniest movement can go for naught Likewise also do all our acts-and over and
above the effect on others and apart from any question of reward or punishment, we can
see.. without the help of any doctrine, that every thought or act, good or bad, has at
once an effect on oneself. |
