From a live interview with Paramacharya Pt. Hardeo Persad on April 2, 2020 on 90.5 FM. Paramacharya talks about astrology, karma and self-effort.
- Interviewer: A good place to start is by saying that all things happen for a reason. There must be some reason that this (Covid-19) is happening now. It’s not just here at home; it is worldwide. We’ve been seeing many articles that say that astrologically, this was supposed to happen. The question is, why is all of this happening now?
- Paramacharya: With respect to astrology, we must be careful because astrology doesn’t cause these things to happen, neither does it specifically predict events. Because of the various alignments of the planets, we realise that certain things could happen. However, if we depend on astrology all the time then we may actually blame astrology for whatever happens.
Sanaatan Dharma teaches that nothing happens without a reason, and this is related to karma, the law of cause and effect. We refer to it as Newton’s 3rd Law, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Our scriptures tell us everything is steeped in karma (action); nothing happens without karma. Ramaayan tells us in Ayodhya Kand, that a person’s own karmas dictate their conditions in life. We all perform karmas on a daily basis. Karmas can be individual or collective.
When we perform actions as individuals or collectively, there are three types of pain that we could experience, according to our scriptures: daihik, bhautik and daivik. Daihik pain is bodily discomfort. Bhautik is environmental disaster over which we have some control. Daivik pains are environmental disasters over which we have no control. With the coronavirus, we are finding means such as social distancing and ‘stay at home’ measures to cope with this. However, if there’s a hurricane, earthquake or tsunami, there is very little we can do about them except to take cover. So, everything that happens is not by chance, it is because of our collective karmas, where society and the world suffers as a whole. Karmas are the cause of everything.
- Is this nature’s way of resetting things, to some extent?
- It is nature disciplining man to bring about the fruition of his karmas. We have said that karmas cause everything to happen. We are all responsible. All scriptures give prohibitions and injunctions. We are supposed to carry out the injunctions and avoid prohibitions. Most people try to carry out the injunctions. For example, for Ram Naumi, we all celebrate in some form. It has been our custom to celebrate collectively in our temples. In the present circumstances, many of us, including myself have advised that we can celebrate at home. This is called Naimitik karma or occasional karma, which we must observe. Failure to do so will incur sin. The injunction is to celebrate, in some form, or we miss out on an opportunity. There are different types of sins that can be created, sins of commission and sins of omission. If I carry out the injunction, all is well and good. If I carry out the prohibitions, then I commit sins of commission. If I do not carry out the injunctions, then it is a sin of omission. It is my personal opinion that most of us suffer from sins of omission.
There is a bhajan that says that karmas cannot be erased. We have to face up to the consequences and this might be mass illnesses or mass suffering in some form, as we see happening right now. If karmas create this, then we must look at performing the right karmas in order to ease the situation. We must not think that astrology has indicated that this is going to happen and I am helpless. Know that self effort supersedes everything else. It is within our power. We have created our circumstances, individually and collectively, and if we become proactive and change our attitudes, so much could be done. Every cloud has a silver lining. We must look at ourselves critically and dispassionately and it is within our power to bring about change. If everything depends on karma, then I must perform the right karmas to help myself.
