Yesterday I wrote an article about Joran van der Sloot, the Dutch Leo who is under arrest in Peru, accused of murdering Stephany Flores Ramírez. She was killed on May 30 2010, and five years earlier, on May 30 2005, Natalee Holloway disappeared, on the island of Aruba. There was suspicion that Joran van der Sloot was involved in her disappearance.
Looking around the internet, there isn’t much sympathy for the man. A commonly expressed view is that he was responsible for Natalee Holloway’s death, and with his arrest in Peru justice is in some way being done. Or to use spiritual language, Joran van der Sloot’s bad Karma is being visited upon him.
Karma is the law of cause and effect. Each force has an opposite force, and whatever you do, good or bad, there’ll be a consequence. If Joran van der Sloot harmed Natalee Holloway, then at some stage he must face the consequences of this action, either in this incarnation or in future ones.
It’s a simple theory, that at first sight seems very appealing. Innocent Natalee Holloway goes abroad, and something terrible happens to her. Someone has to pay.
Yet if we follow the logic of Karma, in the simplistic way I’ve just described, things get a bit crazy. Remembering that the reason Joran van der Sloot is facing a very long prison sentence is not because Natalee Holloway disappeared, but because Stephany Ramírez was murdered.
So how does it work? As a consequence of what happened in Aruba, did the laws of Karma arrange a situation by which Joran van der Sloot would spend decades in prison? In which case Stephany Ramírez’s life was sacrificed, so that Karmic justice could be done.
This kind of logic seems bizarre, because it’s saying that in order to pay the Karmic price of one injustice, another injustice has to occur. Then the only way of correcting that logic is to say that there was some additional Karmic reason for Stephany Ramírez’s death, that had nothing to do with Joran van der Sloot. Perhaps she’d messed up in this incarnation, and it was time for her to die?
Which brings us back to Natalee Holloway. If you believe that Joran van der Sloot is dealing with the Karmic consequences of his actions, then you would also say that Natalee Holloway had her own Karma. She had done something in the past, whether in this incarnation or in previous ones, and her disappearance was simply Karma in action.
Under these circumstances, we have to be very careful about talking about Karma, because our explanations might collapse under the weight of their contradictions. By doing something bad we’re creating bad Karma, but potentially we’re also passively redressing another person’s Karmic imbalance.
The person or persons involved in Natalee’s Holloway’s disappearance were creating bad Karma, but they were additionally instruments of her Karma. At least that’s how the logic goes – it is someone’s Karma to take the full Karma for being the passive instrument of someone’s else’s Karma. Which sounds extraordinary, to say the least.
Copyright © 2010 Archie Dunlop
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Archie,
I agree. In principle good begets good, bad begets bad.
In other belief systems good begets heaven, bad begets hell.
However, other than encouraging us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us… It can become complicated.
Remember Glenn hoddle the former England manager was chastised by the British tabloid press for his views on karma?
It was inferred he felt that people with disabilities deserved their fate due to previous life transgressions.
Archie,
Just a correction to the above comment. Whilst the tabloid press did make a huge thing of Glenn Hoddles comments, the original article was featured in the Times.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sport/football/265903.stm
Nice one, Archie. The whole thing about karma and free will seems so complicated; I feel, the ordinary human brain is not really wired to understand how this world operates. When I am faced with karmic tests, I find it helpful to remember this quote by someone – “Karma is an expression of divine love”.
Archie,
I should say your logic is precise. Thank you for this article. You raised an interesting issue. I think it’s about the way someone (or something) is allowed or not to influence you directly or indirectly etc. I see it like “permission” and its limits in general. Sorry, I am a bit inarticulate. The limits of some universal eternal laws and the feeling of what is acceptable and appropriate and what is not, what is for better and what is for worse. Ignorance of all it leads into trouble. When someone doesn’t follow these universal unwritten laws, he simply makes a mistake that anyhow affects others badly. And it opens the possibility for other people to make the same mistake towards him. I believe, so is the source of vulnerability.