Whatever happens is Justice

Total acceptance of what comes to us will grant us the much desired inner peace. This acceptance comes through complete surrender that it is just and for my ultimate good. The one who is on the path of karma surrenders to the Law of Karma (As one sows, so will he reap). The Bhakta accepts everything as the Will of His beloved Lord. The Gyani surrenders to the design of Life. Whatever be our path, unconditional surrender is must. Our conscious mind can never understand fully how the laws function and therefore resists and questions the rationality of what happens, especially when it happens to us or to our near and dear ones. Our conscious mind can barely see the present, and is totally oblivious of the past causes and the future ultimate good. But the truth is “Whatever happens is justice (with respect to the past) and for our ultimate good (growth) with respect to the future.” We ask “Why me” for the negative outcomes, never when we succeed or stand first in class.

I invite you all to a small primary school-level arithmetic to support my above proposition with a small anecdote I heard recently. ‘A’ and ‘B’ sat down to eat their meal. A had 5 rotis, B had 3 rotis. Their friend ‘C’ came and said he too was hungry. So they all decided to share the 8 rotis equally among the 3 of them. But that was arithmetically impossible. So they all went to their Guru who advised that each roti should be split into 3 equal parts. So the total 8 rotis were split into 24 pieces, and each of them then eat 8 pieces each. ‘Mr. C’ was very grateful to his 2 friends and gave in return 8 coins to be shared between ‘A’ and ‘B’. ‘A’ said that I will take 5 coins and ‘B’ should get 3 coins in the ratio of the rotis they contributed. This seemed fair and just to the conscious mind. But Guruji intervened and said ‘A’ should get 7, and ‘B’ should get 1 coin. This seemed very strange and unfair to the rational mind. But Guruji explained that ‘A’ had contributed 15 pieces (5 rotis x 3 pieces) and ‘B’ had contributed 9 pieces (3 rotis x 3 pieces). ‘A’ contributed 15 pieces and ate 8 pieces and therefore should get the balance i.e. 7 coins. ‘B’ contributed 9 pieces, ate 8 pieces too and should get the balance 1 coin.

So can we really understand fully with our limited minds’ perception what is just and what is not. Even the Geeta says that Karma-Gati is too complicated for us to see its eventual justice and fairness. There is no innocent victim or unqualified beneficiary in its network range. Sri Arvind says in His epic Savitri, “Whether it seems good or evil to men’s eyes, only for good the Secret Will can work.” Swami Swaroopanandaji says “Do your Best, Leave the rest, be assured that what you get is also the Best.” Looking at it a little differently, we can say that in between the two “Bests” only can one really rest. In normal vyavahar also, when somebody asks, "How are you,” we answer “All-right,” Yes, my friends, it is always “All-right” in everything that may seem wrong.

P.S.: My dear friend Sunil promptly corrected me when I had written in my earlier article that Lord Krishna asked Arjuna to step-aside if he did not want to fight the Mahabharata war. Sunil called & said that He did not find this line in the Geeta. I apologize for taking a poetic license to convey some point in that article “The 12th Man” in that context.