| This, the most
important doctrine in Hindu religion, is the application in the moral sphere of the law of
conservation of energy. In deed, both may be looked upon as parts of one law, karma being
the counterpart in the spiritual world of the truth that cause and effect are always
equivalent. As death is only disintegration the body
and not of the soul, the law of cause and effect, so far as the soul is concerned,
continues to operate beyond death. The death of the body does not operate as a
bankruptcy-discharge. The obligations so to say continue and are carried over to the new
page in the account.
The smallest pebble or even a grain of sand thrown into
water produces a ripple. The disturbance is carried onwards in ever-widening circles on
the water. Similarly all our acts and thoughts produce a disturbance of the universal
calm. The most transient or secret thought entertained in the mind ruffles the great
calm and the disturbance has to be worked off. |
