The law of karma is explained to be a holistic concept by many spiritual philosophers.
It is said that karma is not just confined to the actions of individuals, but their thoughts too! Since it is the thoughts that materialise into actions; the law applies to thoughts too. Think bad about a person, someone else will think badly of you. We may think we are not affected by someoneโs bad thoughts, but try losing a relationship over a misunderstanding, and you will get it.
What really happens when we execute an action? Is the law of karma the reason for the chaotic, troublesome life we go through? Can the process of karma explain the invisible order of events that is going on inside the universe? Thereโve been a lot of explanations about karma given by many philosophers, and everyone seems to explain it in a unique way!
As I said earlier, oneโs observation of events around him is not the same as that of anotherโs. So, the explanations may seem different, but they are all one and the same. Now, letโs get our own view of karma through a story.
A man standing at the edge of a road picks up a stone below him and tosses it across the road. It is his habit to while away time during his leisure. He picks up another stone and aims to throw it farther away from the previous stone and succeeds too.
He repeats the process and throws a stone again, but this time, the stone hits a snake crawling in the grass on the other side of the road. The snake, naturally, was stalking a squirrel which had wandered into the grass looking for food.
Unknown to both the snake and the squirrel, a hawk is hovering above them, to catch the squirrel for its lunch. Now, the snake, being suddenly hit, rises above and loses its stealth, causing alarm for the squirrel! The squirrel now runs towards the road, and the hawk dives for it while the snake, which lost track of the squirrel, slithers away disappointed. The man gets bored with his game, stops throwing stones and decides to watch the vehicles that may pass along the road. The squirrel now runs into the mid of the road, confused as to which direction it has to proceed.
At this point, a truck comes along the road and the driver, being sure the squirrel would run away, keeps going without slowing down. The truck is closely followed by a car which was halfway through overtaking the truck. On the opposite direction, another car keeps approaching the truck and the overtaking car. The hawk, which had dived, was nearing the squirrel and was a few metres above it.
The truck driver, upon noticing the hawk diving in front of him, panics and takes a sudden turn to his left! Unfortunately, the car overtaking the truck gets hit and veers away into the grass! The car driver, who is hit by the truck, dies in the impact! The hawk, noticing the approaching truck, flies away while the squirrel, with little knowledge of what happened around it, runs away.
Upon noticing the accident, the car coming from the opposite direction stops by and the driver steps down to help the man in the car, who was already dead. The man, who had thrown the stone in the first place, who started this little event, notices the accident from the side and runs to the car to help too.
The truck driver, who is terror-struck by now, steps down to help the other 2 men. Now, what happens to each of the individuals in the story, is something we can ponder about for a while.
