“As you sow, so you reap” - How True!

“As you sow, so you reap”, this is the basic concept of karma that has always been taught to us all. Your karma decides your fate. One question I get to hear many a times, why is it then that evil people are so successful now a days than the good ones? Why do good people have to struggle so much in life?

Karma is still working the same as it was when these concepts were written in our scriptures. It’s the way we see the same that has changed.

I’ll take the example of Ram and Ravan from Ramayana. When you read Ramayana who do you find more successful Ram or Ravan? Ravan, he had a overflowing treasury, he had won over all the gods and was the king of all three worlds, everyone feared him. Yet he was evil, corrupt and deceitful. Rama, the humble king, whose knowledge knew no bounds. But he had to spend time in forest to become the king, his wife Sita got kidnapped, he had to fight to get her and again got separated from her. His life was that of a struggle.

But we always consider Rama as the successful one and never Ravan. This is what we have been told in scriptures. But if you put them in today’s world, would you say the same?

What success really means as per our scriptures? According to vedas a person is successful when he has won over evils like greed, anger, jealousy etc. He is highly spiritual. He has realised money and power really don’t matter to be happy, they are infact chains pulling you away from the path of God. It keeps you away from path of realising the ultimate truth.

But in today’s modern world its this money and power which is marked as the level of success. The whole concept has changed. Social status and respect today is gained through these. People get attracted to these false means of happiness and success.

So when you talk about karma and its concepts, though you are referring to something from scriptures but measure it as per the modern day world. You need to refer to success also as per our scriptures. And according to that a successful person is one who is free from bondages and attractions of materialistic world. He would be working to earn in order to run his family, but his prime thought would always remain towards God. He would stay on the path of truth and thus be close to God.