I see tv ads for Child Fund, Humane Society of the US, ASPCA, etc. showing starving children and abused and abandoned animals (when I can see through my tears... yeah a 215 lb hairy tattooed bear crying). I rescued my cat as a 5 week old kitten who was hours away from death (he's now 18 months old and 14 lbs). I can believe that was my dharma. Am I to believe that this is their karma for deeds in past lives? To endure such suffering? Or is this just the nature of existence and they had the misfortune, the unlucky roll of the dice to be born into such a life? I'm not sure I can believe that their suffering is payment of karmic debt. So where have I gone wrong in my thinking?
You are the victim of oversimplifying. The solution to a better understanding is not more rationalization based on pity emotions. The solution is a much more a difficult one, to upgrade your thinking. Hinduism is not a religion of the masses like for instance Christianity and Islam. Christianity was tailored for the needs of the people of Rome, one the first mega cities, and one of the first consumer societies, and a slave society. That is why it makes little sense if think it trough. But in a very clever way it knows how to play into peoples feelings of suffering. guilt, etc.
Hinduism is not like that, it was created by sages, philosophers and their teachings were secret to common people. For common people they made beautiful epic stories and other practical guidelines. Stories are more fun and much easier to remember than deep wisdom or philosophical exercises, and make you less arrogant.
To many it may seem that karma is simple thing. The way they look at it, it seems like some kind of punishment for past deeds, and they ask themselves why it must be so cruel. But that is a wrong understanding of Karma. Many believe Karma is the Law of cause and effect, and this is still an oversimplification. Karma is not about cause and effect, it is the Law of seed and fruit. It may seem the same but is subtly different.
When you irritate yourself, and you allow your irritation to grow, at some point your irritation may lead to an explosion of anger. And as you explode, similar seeds are planted in the person you leashed at. And at some point he may do something very hurtful to you. And you will not understand, Your anger you remember as justified by your irritation. We are much more aware of our own feelings than that of others. So we easily find the whole thing very unjust.
But justice had little to do with it. Justice is man made idea that someone up there gives each one what he has a right for. As if an impartial referee is taking scores, and then there is final making up of the bill. But that is an illusion invented by men. This is not what we see in nature. In nature things grow and they grow logically from their seeds. In the seeds the whole development is contained, the environment can only slightly change this, but it will not turn an apple seed into a cherry tree. It will only make it grow faster or slower. Some trees will always grow straight, some are easily bend.
As you live your life you character develops as you react to circumstances good or bad. To some people bad circumstance can really have a good influence on their character. For instance they are maltreated and they say: now that I know how painful this is, I will never do the same to someone else. But others will react, I am hurt and I take my revenge on the world. With good circumstance it is the same, it will make some people want to share it with others, but some become arrogant and unfeeling, like the rich boys in Brazil who started killing poor people at night because they have no value.
So what is agreeable and what does us good are two different things to begin with. As we develop our character we we develop Karma, because we can not do things without our subconscious retaining an imprint. And from that our character itself will create opportunities and problems for us. It will even determine how we start our next life, it will be concentrated in the next seed. This seed will then determine how we will grow up and what things we will attract.
The knowledge of Karma is what makes us strong. Why? Because it gives a means and a goal to develop ourselves. This knowledge makes us the master of our own fate. Without this knowledge we are simply small boats in an ocean totally dependent on the direction of the wind and the currents.
When the great Jewish wise man Hillel was asked about this, He said: Why good people have misfortune and are evil ones fortune, is something we will never understand. For in monotheism everything is the will of God, and that makes God seem evil at times. Their best answer you find in the book of Job, where Satan, who is represented as a servant of God, bets with God that Job is not really as loyal to him as he believes. So to prove he is wrong God is giving Satan permission to do the most terrible things to Job and his dear ones. What a horrible thought! That would make God like a child that pulls the legs of insects to see if they walk on two legs. A total lack of respect for his subjects. They believe man is basically bad. He must be, otherwise God would not do like that top him.
So the Law of Karma is in fact very reassuring. I says: Don't be afraid, nothing ever happens that you are not a part of in the making. If you do not like the result, you can change it, by changing your attitude to the world, here is how...
All an monotheist can say is: InsAllah, or Godwilling, I do not like it but it is God's will, I will have to accept it. That is why Jews came to the conclusion God must be both good and bad. There is no other explanation if everything goes to his will and it is all in his master plan. It makes people submissive, not to annoy God, who has a bad temper. Even Jesus expresses on his end: Why God, why have you forsaken me.
But for the Hindu, we can appeal to a higher explanation, one that gives all the power to the individual. We are not victims, neither of God nor fate, we create our own destination. And we can do that in any circumstance, good or bad. Because we know it is not the circumstances that matter. We want to "rise to the occasion".
So let the sentimentality go, it only drags you down. Showing compassion with beings in need is positive, this weening does not become you, as Krishna makes very clear to Arjuna, as he is crying why he must kill the ones he loves so much.
Make no mistake, we are here because we have an unstoppable desire to be here. What you call suffering are simply the most potent experiences this world offers. That is why jealousy, anger, grief, guilt, fear can so easily hold us hostage. Our mind loves it, even if our rational rejects it. And if you do not believe that than wonder why there exist people who seek pain and fear consciously and love it.
The rest is up to you, but I suggest, you let go of sentimentality, it simply is not an emotion that serves us. If you like sentimentality, than Christianity might be a better faith for you, it is full of it. I comes from the Greek tradition in which true hero's had the most miserable lives often ending in disaster. The Greeks did not believe in happy endings most of the time. The made it popular and called it: "tragedy". And people love the stories, even more than the other one: comedy. which often is laughing at other peoples mistakes.
But for the Hindu life is Joy, how can it be otherwise? You are divine. You walk this world like a God. If you forget that, than you become one of the beasts fighting for his survival in an unforgiving world, the victim of a cruel God. You will beat your children, because God beats them too and they need to be hardened. All suffering begins with ourselves, in us the seed grows, even if it is just nasty thoughts like you display here. Do not think that your gloomy thoughts grow into joyful fruits. And apple seed never grows into a cherry tree.
Neither think that the character is formed outside in. The outer is an expression of the inner. You can read books, eat vegetarian, call your God Krishna, worship him serveral times a day, because it is so auspicious, but do not expect to much from this. It is the inner where the attention needs to be directed. Otherwise you are like the man that thinks he can become a successful businessman if he dresses like one. No, that will not work, but thinking like one surely will. It begins with the thoughts even before that with subtle feelings, and it grows from there. You may eat vegetarian to avoid subtle negative influences, but your sentiment is a real poison to your mind. The sick man dresses up for a walk in the park.
O alas, if only the world was not so bittersweet. What does that thought really express? I am to good for this lousy world. If only the world was as good as me.
Well it is, it always is. Unmask it, It is an expression of the ego. But this you is not one percent as good as you think it is. Because if it was, you would embrace this world with every breath. You would taste the Divine in every breath in every sound, in every thing. But your mind is clouded and so you keep on poisoning it, because your attention is outward directed and you do not recognize your own poison.
