Suffering and Blame

The human ego is always affronted by suffering. “Why is this happening to me?” Or “What have I done to deserve this?” is the universal question posed by sufferers.

Although it is possible to explain logically why a certain family is poorer than others, why a nation prospers or does not, or why natural disasters strike in some zones with greater frequency than in others from the subjective view-point, the individual sufferer is unable to find satisfying explanation of his or her plight. Simply saying that such is the situation of lots of people is insufficient.

Failure to be satisfied with fate leads some people to act in ways detrimental both to themselves spiritually and to the community at large. They may come to hate and to act wrongfully under the deluded conviction that society, political factions, or isolated individuals are actually the cause of their hardships.

Although a case may be made for animosity against people who are indeed sources of wrong, nothing can be said to defend sufferers who take their ills out on people completely unrelated to the issue in question, as it often the case with social and political radicals determined to destroy the Establishment, on which they load the blame for all their woes.

Both in Buddhism and Christianity the answers to such sufferings are traditional and more elevated, these religions view the sufferings as the manifestation of the causes which were created in the past. The great advantage of belief in karmic causation is that it places the responsibility for good and bad fortune squarely on the shoulders of the person experiencing it.

Buddhism, for example, teaches the doctrine of transmigration; in an infinite series of transmigration; living beings have already had vast numbers of past existences and will have vast numbers of future ones. The sufferings in the present life is the outcome of causes(good and bad both) one has created in his or her past lives and acts perpetrated now will affect future existences favorably or adversely, depending on their quality.

In certain respects, this makes the burden of suffering easier to bear: when we know that something is our own fault, at least we recognize that it is pointless to wreak our anguish on others. No one who realizes that what happens to him, for better or for worse, is his own responsibility can reasonably thank or blame anyone else.

It also provides us with the moral lesson that we must be responsible for what we do and teaches us that actions have consequences. Whether or not this is so – and it is certainly not possible to put it to rigorous test – at least such an idea has beneficial consequences for mankind in general. A man may refrain from wrongful deeds to avoid untoward consequences at a later time. He may be correct or mistaken in believing in the imputed relationship of cause and effect, but by believing in it, he does at least acquire a certain respect for his fellow men.

Furthermore, the awareness that what one does now will have an effect on the future, has the latent function of helping to maintain moral standards of society on which we all depend, inspires men to act in such a way as to generate good, not bad, karmic causes. And this cannot fail to have a salutary effect on the welfare of others and on social harmony. The idea is to look for the causes of our suffering within and take responsibility of all the good or bad that happens to us.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in the blog are that of the author and does not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of The Sunday Indian.)