Does Karma exist in Christianity?

Karma, in its simplest form is explained as akin to Newton's third law of cause and effect; for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. As you sow, so you reap. You sow wheat and shall reap nothing but wheat; you sow hatred and shall reap hatred, you do a good deed and good shall return to you. If you hurt someone or for that matter kill someone, either out of intent or out of ignorance / negligence, it is for the law of karma to see to that you to suffer so, in another instant. Or contrarily, you probably would have suffered so, at an earlier instant, and are / were merely repaying or encountering the fruits of that deed. Strangely, the bodies of many vegetarian Hindus get burnt by the wood of the trees, and conversely, most of the bodies of the consumers of flesh and meat, get eaten by maggots and worms when they are buried, and that then looks logically karmic! You eat off the tree and are consumed by the tree, and you eat off the flesh, and are consumed by another form of flesh.

The message of reincarnation and resurrection as evidenced in the book of Job is in the context and conversations of the three wise men, along with their friends Job and Elihu. Their debates point singularly to fate or karma, and the discussion is centered on the state of the human condition and the reasons for an individual's misery or glory. Even as the three wise men, Bildad, Zophar and Eliphaz, who did not comprehend the speech of Job, but still condemned him for his miserable state; Job spoke of his righteous conduct and the life after death based on God's judgment. In the words of Job, if two men were to die, one wicked and another righteous, both shall be judged for their deeds and recompensed accordingly. Job further explained his own question, 'if a man die, shall he live again?' Upon his death, man shall lie in wait till the calling from God, for his change to come. His deeds and sins, and of the righteousness or of wickedness, are sewn up in a bag, and are known to God. God gives man a new appearance and sends him away, and neither he nor his sons neither perceive nor know it, but his flesh shall bear pain and his soul shall mourn. The words of Job are echoed by the younger man among them; Elihu, and in a similar context he spoke of resurrection and reincarnation, 'for the work of man, God shall render unto him and cause every man to find (judgment) according to his ways. God will not do wickedly and pervert judgment. When a man dies, his flesh is consumed away, his soul draws near unto the grave; and his life to the destroyers (worms). If there is a messenger, or an interpreter, to show unto man his uprightness: then God is gracious to him, and says, deliver him from going to the pit: I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to the days of his youth, and be favourable to God, and render unto man his righteousness. If any (man) say, I have sinned, and it did not profit me; he will deliver his soul from going to the pit, and his life shall see light. God works these things oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living'.

Religion, be it any and all, in general has a tendency to be of ritualistic reverence which tends to delineate itself by isolation from the other faiths even to the extent of nullifying the other beliefs. Each and every religion has its own deity or deities, prophets, priests, spiritual gurus or holy persons and men of higher powers and knowledge, who all proscribe sin and unlawful conduct and guide people to lead a life of fulfilment and to attain the ultimate Salvation of the soul. All forms of religion invariably will have to lead to the one God, who, however is called by various names according to the individual faiths. Thus said; to the individual, God becomes a unipolar source with many paths leading to the 'One'. Just as a shaft of white light, when passed through the medium of a glass prism disperses into the seven spectral colours, the singular truth of the One God gets attenuated into the various religious forms, when dispersed by the medium of faith. Each individual faith then colours the image of God and portrays the perceptions to the people according to the spectral band that they lay therein. Collectively or singularly, people then hold forth to what they see and believe as the only truth. Just as the spectral bands of infrared or ultraviolet lights are not seen to the naked eye; even they originate off the singular shaft of the white light, and in a similar manner, the beholders or the keepers of good and evil; the angels or even the devils, naturally originate from the One God.

Atheism, by definition would become a faith in 'nothing', thereby becoming a faith by itself. Atheists, would thus endear themselves greatly to the highest power, invariably or involuntarily or in any otherwise, during the course of time and age, as, 'nothing' and 'everything' belongs to the Almighty, even as zero and infinity belongs to the Almighty. Even though, physical science can claim usage and acceptance of both zero and Infinity, it would however, never be able to fathom both, without the aid of spiritual science. Atheism, would amount to belief of 'nothingness or void or shunya', which is the concept of zero. Hence, the state of mind which is blank is the perfect, recommended, meditative state for a person to get closer to the highest powers that be; wherein your mind is still, and unmoved. Zero or shunya has its origins in India and out of Sanatana Dharma and spiritually it is not indicative of, 'absence' of a material thing, but essentially, it is a state of the mind which is 'devoid of anything'. The western concept, or more so, the scientific concept of zero essentially is the 'absence of anything', so as to say that 'I have no mangoes', or 'I have zero credit' or 'I have a nil balance' and theoretically, an 'absolute vacuum', and is practically improbable to achieve such a state. Whereas, the Indian spiritual concept of 'zero or shunya', is an absolute 'zero', which is equitable to a blank state in the conscious cognizance, and one that leads to 'mental bliss' or the state of mind, called 'Ananda' - which paradoxically translates as 'infinity' in Sanskrit.

'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven, blessed are the meek, which are hungry and thirst after righteousness; blessed are the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. You are like the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world; as candle is set on a candlestick, let your light shine before men that they may see your good work and praise God. Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I have come to fulfil them. Till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one iota, shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever shall break one of the least commandments, and shall teach others so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven; but whoso shall keep the commandments and teach them, shall be called great. You have heard in the old time that whosoever shall kill shall be in the danger of judgment; but I say that whoso is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment, and he who says, 'scoundrel' or 'you fool' shall be in danger of hell fire. Before bringing a gift to the altar, reconcile with your brother and then offer your gift. It was said, do not commit adultery; but I say that whoso looks on a woman with lust, has committed adultery. Do not swear at all; not even on your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. You have heard it said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say, resist not evil: but if one strikes your right cheek, show him the other also. If any man sue you by law and take your coat, give him you cloak also. Turn not one away, one who comes to borrow from you. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and do good to them that hate you. That you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he makes his sun to rise on the evil, and on the good, and sends rain on the just, and on the unjust. Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect'.

Jesus continued on the sermon from the mount, 'when doing alms or prayers, let not the left hand know what your right hand does; when you do it in secret, your Father will reward you openly. Your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask him. If you do not forgive men of their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Lay not your treasures upon earth, for they will corrupt, or thieves will steal; lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, which cannot be stolen or corrupted, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be. No man can serve two masters with an equal heart, so it is with God and wealth. Take no thought for your life; what to eat or drink and what to wear or put on. Is not life more than food; and the body anything more than a garment? The fowls do not sow, nor reap and gather food in barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add an inch to his stature? Why take thought of garments? Consider the lilies of the field and how they grow, they toil not; even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of those. If God so clothe the grass of the field; which today is, and gone tomorrow; shall he not much more clothe you? Seek the Kingdom of God and all his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take no thought for tomorrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day, is the evil thereof. Judge not, that you will not be judged, for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you give out, it shall be measured to you again'.

Jesus continued: 'Ask and it shall be given to you: seek, and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asks receives; he that seeks shall find; and to him that knocks, it shall be opened. What man is there among you who will give a stone, if his son were to ask for bread? Or if he were to ask for a fish, would he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your father in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Therefore, do all things to men that you would want men to do to you: for this is the law. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither shall a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut and cast into fire'. When he was done speaking; the people were astonished at his doctrine, because he taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Human life, if we are to take it at mere face value, springs forth a plethora of seemingly unanswerable questions, and life looks unequal to each individual. One comes across birth, death, suffering, pain, different ability and capability, anguish, sorrow, natural disasters, accidents, joy, happiness, money, power, sex, orientation, spiritualism etc. in unequal measures. Some are born rich, some are born in penury, some are lame, sick or healthy or wealthy again in unequal measures. Science, nevertheless would not be able to answer the inequalities in the state of the 'human condition', and perhaps would not even be interested in attempting an answer, and hence religion seems a safe haven to shelter upon, to seek solace or Salvation. If however, different faiths talk of different concepts, and differ in the basic understanding of the human values of life and death, questions are indeed again bound to arise. The term 'blind faith' sounds like a misnomer, as seemingly and understandably so; many seem to capitalize on keeping the faithful, blind! What of death and the human condition within the lifetime of a man, and the evident inequalities and iniquities and afflictions? Are they different for different religions?

"After many subsequent generations of Noah, when men decided to build a mighty tower; such as one which could reach up to heaven, the gods realized that the people were united and together as 'one', because of a single common language. They then said to themselves that if men begin to do acts such as this, nothing will be restrained from them which they imagine to do, and they came down to earth and confounded the language of men, so that none understood each another's speech. It is no wonder then, that the root words of many languages remain the same. For example, the Hebrew word for serpent is nahash or saraf; and in Sanskrit, it is naga or sarpa. The Sanskrit word for fire is Agni; In Latin it is Ignis. The words 'eido', 'veda' and 'yada' mean 'to know' respectively in Greek, Sanskrit and Hebrew. What could be more similar and simpler than ma and pa in any language!? Etymology aside, surely, man must have outpaced his evolutionary pace set by the gods; as the tower of Babel, to have been built out of baked bricks and slime based mortar, hardly could have reached threatening proportions to worry the powerful gods or the angels, or even Satan, let alone the Almighty God. It nevertheless would be surprising then, that the good Lord did not like the unity of purpose in men and their commonality in language....."