Handicap and karma

Namasté

Yesterday, after attending the Sunday feast at the Krishna temple, one of my friends had an encounter with a certain guy who was a very grumpy individual and who sat in a wheelchair. The guy said something very unfriendly, supposedly about my friend blocking the walkway, and after a little argument my friend replied “You know why you’re sitting in that wheelchair”, which could only be meant as reference to karma. I don’t think my friend has something against handicapped people (otherwise he would not give me a ride to the Krishna temple in his car – I’m handicapped), but the remark kept me wondering. Or am I just too touchy? How are the handicapped regarded in relation to karma?

Hare Krishna Sirona ji
Firstly we're all here in the material world, because of our karma.
We're all like prisoners of a jail, and doesn't matter what one's karmic history was, our goal is the same: to cross the ocean of samsara
In any case, don't let your self-esteem go down

Karma is karma, and it's one of the things that many westerners coming into Dharma often have an issue with.

That being said, people like to harp on about how people who are handicapped are being "punished" for their past lives via karma. Something to keep in mind is that karma is always occurring with avery action, thought, and deed. So those people who are trying to assert some kind of spiritual superiority by pointing out the misfortunes of others often forget they they have their own karmic debts to pay. That it's just as bad of karma (heck, maybe worse) to not help those in need or to put them down because of their own misfortunes or situations.

Also, personally, I believe that once we're born, that we are born with a new clean slate; regardless of what happened in a past life or how we are physically born. As such, we make best with what we are given in this lifetime and should help those in worse shape than we may be.

Just my $0.02.

Sirona said:

“You know why you’re sitting in that wheelchair”

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That was a rude remark and your friend should not have said that, but people make mistakes. They can make amends and do better the next time.

"Satyam bruyat, priyam bruyat, ma bruyat satyamapriyam l
priyam cha nanritam bruyat, esha dharmah sanatanah ll
(Speak truth, speak sweet, do not speak truth if it is unpleasant;
speak sweet and truthful, that is the eternal dharma.

Sirona said:

Namasté

Yesterday, after attending the Sunday feast at the Krishna temple, one of my friends had an encounter with a certain guy who was a very grumpy individual and who sat in a wheelchair. The guy said something very unfriendly, supposedly about my friend blocking the walkway, and after a little argument my friend replied “You know why you’re sitting in that wheelchair”, which could only be meant as reference to karma. I don’t think my friend has something against handicapped people (otherwise he would not give me a ride to the Krishna temple in his car – I’m handicapped), but the remark kept me wondering. Or am I just too touchy?

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Many, many things are beyond our frame of reference as to WHY?. Our job is to maturely deal with good and bad fortune with compassion and intelligently not attach ourselves to the temporary (all of our physical bodies are aging and declining towards death). It sounds to me like both your friend and the guy in the wheelchair may have had lapses in their spiritual behavior; it happens. Just forget it and don't dwell on it.

Sirona said:

How are the handicapped regarded in relation to karma?

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With compassion by anyone with a properly functioning brain

Sirona said:

Namasté

Yesterday, after attending the Sunday feast at the Krishna temple, one of my friends had an encounter with a certain guy who was a very grumpy individual and who sat in a wheelchair. The guy said something very unfriendly, supposedly about my friend blocking the walkway, and after a little argument my friend replied “You know why you’re sitting in that wheelchair”, which could only be meant as reference to karma. I don’t think my friend has something against handicapped people (otherwise he would not give me a ride to the Krishna temple in his car – I’m handicapped), but the remark kept me wondering. Or am I just too touchy? How are the handicapped regarded in relation to karma?

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The handicapped person took birth this way because of his previous karmas. That doesn't mean his entire life will be hell, as long as he does good actions. Your friend however, will experience some effect of the papa karma that he got by insulting the person.

Karma is impersonal. To mock, deride, or judge somebody suffering from bad karma is to misunderstand how karma works.

All bad events are born in past karma. All good events are born in past karma. It does not mean "bad things happen to bad people because they are bad." Saints suffer and sinners find success.

Namaste,

I think the problem arises if we take some thing like being/becoming or born handicap/disabled ect as "Bad", and therefore resulting in the equation that the Karma must have been "Bad", to get this bad result. If we change our perspective on disability to be of neutral, not assuming the previous Karma and judging on that basis but evaluating ones current Karm and basing our judgement on that, it will be more accurate description of Karma. Not that we should judge people but more try to understand them so as to foster some respect, and dignity. I think its more degrading for someone if they think that their physical/mental state is something "Bad", in the view of others. We our self don't know our past Karma, what right do we have to assume another's? remember we only have the right to our karm, not the p+hala.

Sirona said:

How are the handicapped regarded in relation to karma?

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Not my job to make judgments of other people's Karma. Your story makes me think of Helen Keller very bad handy cap. But... She did so much good for others on top of being a moral luminary. Good Karma or bad Karma ? I would go with good. I try to only judge my Karma like this. What I think and do is what I become. I see no reason to go beyond that. It works for me.

Wannabe Yogi.. said:

Your story makes me think of Helen Keller very bad handycap. But... She did so much good for others on top of being a moral luminary.

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May have, in some previous birth. But she made full amends by being a model of courage to millions.

Sirona said:

How are the handicapped regarded in relation to karma?

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In no particular way. For some, it's a gift. For others, it's inconsequential. A disability IS one's karma, if that happens to be their reality. Past does not determine one's karma.