Family and Nation

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya, A P J Abdulkalam
Publisher: Harper Publications India

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THE FAMILY AND THE NATION
while encouraging compassion and reciprocity. Each person is his neighbour; any distinction between me as subject and the other as object is illusory.
The Law of Consequences is not a static law. We constantly use it to set in motion new causes to improve our lot. The Law of Consequences is intimately tied up with the Law of Rebirth, sometimes called the Law of Reincarnation. Our consciousness has experienced many lifetimes on Earth in the past, and it shall live through many more in the future. In each of these past lives we have set various causes into operation, some of which are only now in the present life bringing their effects into manifestation. In Hinduism and Buddhism, these effects are called Karma. Hindus look at Karma as a debt of destiny. Buddhists look at Karma as conditional existence. Hinduism says we are paying debts from the past, and that we are also reaping rewards from the past. Buddhism says we are clearing bondage and liberating ourselves from the conditions of our existence.
The first thing we have to realize is the concept of destiny. Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon Him) has said, 'Whenever Allah desires good for His creation, He gives him deep understanding of the religion and He inspires him with righteous guidance.' In its simplest meaning, destiny is reflection of character. The traits of character that most often cause bad destiny are anger, fear, pride, hate, revenge, sensuality, selfishness, envy and intolerance. The first thing to do is to scrutinize our habitual line of thinking and see if we have any of these traits in our make-up, even in a small degree. If we find that we have, then we must go to work on them and gradually remove them. The two principal means of doing this are changes in thought and action, particularly towards others. Thought, however, is the more basic, and if we correct our habitual thought, we shall find that our actions almost automatically follow the revised pattern of thinking.