Author name: HKC

 
(from the Introduction to Sri Krishna-samhita)
 
The people of India and other countries may be divided into two categories- the asslike and the swanlike. Of these two, the asslike are in the majority. The swanlike are in the minority. Swanlike people abstract the purport of the scriptures for their own advancement and thus benefit themselves.
 
Everyone has the right to discuss spiritual topics. Yet people are divided into three categories according to their qualifications. Those who do not posses independent power of discrimination are in the first category and are called neophytes, or those with soft faith. They have no alternative to faith. If they do not accept whatever the compilers of the scriptures write as the order of the Lord, then they fall down. They are qualified only for understanding the gross meanings of the science of Krsna; they have no qualification for understanding the subtle meanings. Until they gradually advance by good association and instruction, they should try to advance under the shelter of faith. Those who have not yet succeeded in connecting faith with argument are second grade persons, or madhyama-adhikaris. And those who are expert in connecting these two are perfect in all respects. They are able to attain perfection by utilizing material resources in their independent endeavors. They are called topmost persons, or uttama-adhikaris.
 

 
Karma means action, or any action that brings a reaction that binds us to the material world. Although the idea of karma is generally associated with Eastern philosophy, many people in the West are also coming to understand that karma is a natural principle, like time or gravity, and no less inescapable. For every action there is a reaction. If we cause pain and suffering to other living beings, we must endure pain and suffering in return, both individually and collectively.
 
We reap what we saw, in this life and the next, for nature has her own justice. No one can escape the law of karma, except those who understand how it works.
 
To understand how karma can cause war, for example, let’s take an illustration from the Vedas. Sometimes a fire is started in a bamboo forest when the trees rub together. The real cause of the fire, is not the trees but the wind that moves them. The trees are only the instruments. In the same way two nations are not the real causes of the friction that may exist between them, The real cause is the karma generated by the world’s supposedly innocent citizens.