Talk:Objections to the Doctrine of Karm and Responses:Karm and Divine Partiality

By Vishal Agarwal

Objection: Some Śāstra declare that we do good or bad Karm through Divine Providence, and therefore we cannot rule out predestination. For instance, an Upaniṣad says:

He whom the Bhagavān wishes to raise to higher worlds, He makes them do virtuous deeds. And whom He wishes to push down to lower worlds, He makes them do evil deeds. — Ṛgveda, Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad 3.8

Therefore, why do human beings have to suffer for doing deeds that they have been forced to do by Him?

Answer: Texts like these are not meant to be taken literally because their purpose is to emphasize that the Bhagavān is not a slave of the doctrine of Karm. Secondly, we must not be proud of our good Karm and take heaven as our destination for granted, because it is the Bhagavān from whom we get the agency of Karm, and we ought to accept the fruit of our Karm as His grace.

The Will of the Divine about sending people up or down is not whimsical but consistent with their respective Karm. And it is for this reason that what we call ‘Fate’ is termed as Daiva (‘from the Divine’)—merely to emphasize the fact that it is the Bhagavān who dispenses the fruit of our Karm.