What is karma and sin? Does family karma exist?

Dear readers!

It has been over 20 years since the release of my first book. There is plenty of information, and looking back, I can say that it has stood the test of time. My general conclusions, general understanding remain the same, only details and emphases have been refined, but the emphases are very important.

If a person climbs a mountain without seeing its peak, they may simply get lost. To climb a mountain, you need to consider the following aspects: specify its height, anticipate the difficulties and problems you may encounter, then you will need to develop a route and prepare equipment.

Thus, the first look is strategic, the second is tactical. Then you need to assess your condition, how well you are dressed, how ready you are to embark on the journey. If a person doesn't know where to go, they may get lost and perish, so it is very important to have a general picture.

Today, you can find many videos of seminars, books on this topic, and people who are just beginning to understand all this, simply get lost in the abundance of information. Therefore, I would like to focus on the main conclusions I have come to, on the general picture that will help answer the most important questions, and then we can move on to the details.

Every day, we utter words that have become habitual and familiar. For example, we say, «A person sins and is punished for it», and we even know such a concept as «karma». But then why do small children fall ill, when from the religious point of view, their souls are pure? It turns out that a child pays for the sins of the parents. Or perhaps something happened to a person in past lives, and that's why they are unhappy now.

People have long been interested in questions related to karma, as this concept, coming to us from the East, has existed for thousands of years. By the way, in European culture, there is something similar: it is about sin and retribution for sins. If a person sins, God punishes them, and the person encounters health problems and fate issues.

Modern science is only beginning to grasp the connection of events. Elevating the physical body of a person, it has long and persistently ignored the cause-and-effect relationships that exist in the world. It is very difficult to believe that a person pays for what they once did, and science simply could not accept it on faith, as there were no physical evidence.

But religion constantly talked about it. Let's remember what Christ said: «Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee», here there is a direct connection between a person's behavior and their health, their fate.

What is karma and what is sin?

Karma, in simple terms, is the law of cause and effect. Our past doesn't disappear anywhere, it exists, and we are connected to it. Moreover, it influences the present and the future.

Karma is a concept in Indian philosophy that encompasses not only the law of cause and effect but also the concept of the «Akashic Records». Vedic philosophy states that there is a universal ether in which all events are recorded. It contains the history of the fate of each individual.

Thus, everything a person has ever done inevitably affects their present and future; experience doesn't vanish. This is what is implied by the concept of karma.

In Abrahamic religions and branches of Christianity, the concept of karma is bypassed because understanding it requires clairvoyance, insight, revelation from above.

The knowledge obtained by our civilization over five thousand years ago and reflected in Indian philosophy was much harder for the European consciousness to grasp because the concept of karma and the concept of the soul's reincarnation weakened human interest in life.

Here, the dialectic of science played its role: in Eastern culture, a person's attention is directed towards their inner world, while in Western culture, it is directed outwardly. According to the law of unity and struggle of opposites, this division yielded its results.

The Eastern concept of «karma» entered European culture as the concept of «sin». If one reflects, the concept of sin is essentially the concept of karma, and if a person commits a wrongdoing, it won't go unpunished, and sooner or later, they will face retribution for their sins.

However, unlike in Eastern religions, in Abrahamic religions, people are punished for their unjust deeds by the Creator, the Almighty. This is mentioned in both Christianity and Judaism, as well as in Islam.

Interestingly, in India, there is the concept of karma, but each person has their own, personal karma, and if you committed sins in past lives, you will pay for them in this life. But does the behavior of parents influence the fate of their children?

Indian specialists answer this question negatively. This is why, to this day, thousands of mothers in India douse themselves in petrol and set themselves on fire to become widows, so their sons can find more suitable partners.

Mothers do this to avoid tarnishing the karma of their sons because the concept of family karma does not exist in India. However, it does exist in the Old Testament—the Holy Scripture of Judaism and Christianity.

It explicitly states that the sins of parents fall upon the shoulders of children, and children fall ill, suffer, and die because their father or mother once sinned.

Moreover, it is said that God punishes sins up to the third and fourth generation, and more serious sins are punished up to the tenth generation.

By the way, in the Old Testament, it is written that the Almighty said: «I make a covenant with you, with the people of Israel».

It is crucial where this covenant begins, and it begins with God commanding: «On the eighth day, circumcision must be performed». Why is circumcision necessary? The essence of this procedure is for a person to diminish their lust. It's like a sacrifice of sexual energy, a sacrifice of pleasure and sensuality.

If a person cannot control their animal desires, instincts, they forget about the Creator, their soul gradually weakens, and since the soul is primary, the spirit and body, which are directly connected to a person's physical health, start to weaken as well.

Thus, the Bible states that the soul is primary, while modern science asserts that the body is primary. Furthermore, the very concept of «soul» is essentially ignored by science. Meanwhile, the concept of the soul is closely related to notions such as morality, dignity, mercy, love. All of these are ultimately implied by the word «soul», and as a religious concept, the soul cannot exist without love for God, without faith in Him.

S.N. Lazarev. «Human Health. The Encounter of Science and Religion»