Why doesn't the law of Karma apply to animals? || Acharya Prashant, IIT-Kharagpur session (2020)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Video Information: 25.09.20, IIT-Kharagpur - Webinar, Greater Noida  Context: ~ Why does the law of Karma not apply to animals? ~ What is the difference between man & animal? ~ Why does man suffer after entering bad Karma?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00What are the consequences of bad actions?

00:08It is said that human beings get bad results and punishment if they enter into bad actions.

00:26But nothing of this sort is said for animals.

00:36Why does the law of karma not apply to animals?

00:45The law of karma does not apply to animals because animals do not really have a choice in their actions.

00:59And when there is no choice, there is no question of reward or punishment.

01:05Human beings are in a peculiar situation.

01:12They can choose to side with their animalistic conditioning or they can choose something higher.

01:26They can choose freedom, joy, love, liberation, compassion.

01:33Therefore, humans have a responsibility.

01:41Animals don't have that responsibility.

01:46Animals are dictated fully by their biological conditioning.

01:54If there is a road accident here, on the road outside,

02:10you do not really expect the street dogs to come to rescue and help the victims of the accident, do you?

02:29They are not supposed to.

02:35So you will not get angry at the dogs when they do not come to help the injured ones.

02:46A couple of bike riders have met an accident and they are lying on the road.

02:58And then there are birds on the trees and there are dogs roaming about.

03:11They will not take any special interest.

03:16There are so many insects around, aren't there?

03:22Some snake is there in the bush, right?

03:31They do not really care for these two creatures who are lying bleeding on the road.

03:43And they do not care and they will not attract any punishment.

03:48Because they are not supposed to.

03:52They just do not have the option to act in compassion.

03:59No animal can be compassionate really.

04:03Because an animal is completely just Prakriti.

04:10Animal really does not have the option to be a liberated consciousness.

04:23The animal's consciousness is completely dominated by its physical conditioning.

04:30Are you getting it?

04:33Therefore the animal gets neither reward nor punishment.

04:38Which is comfortable in a sense because the animal lives in a secure zone.

04:54A dog is born a dog, lives as a dog and dies as a dog.

05:00And no dog lives in a state of consciousness that is very different from that of another dog.

05:13Are you getting it?

05:16You cannot say one dog is liberated and the other dog is not.

05:20You cannot say one dog is joyful and compassionate and the other dog is not.

05:24Dogs can have varying external situations but internally all dogs are just dogs.

05:35This is not the case with human beings.

05:40Human beings can vary greatly in their internal states.

05:50One human being can be full of compassion and the other one can be spiteful, angry, vicious and violent.

06:07Are you getting it?

06:11Therefore the one who is compassionate is rewarded.

06:16He made the right choice.

06:20The one who is vicious is punished by his viciousness itself.

06:27He made the wrong choice.

06:30So there is this great difference between animals and human beings.

06:35Which also means that human beings must never justify their actions by taking examples of animals.

06:48For example if you eat animal flesh, you cannot justify it by saying that a lion or a wolf too kills other animals to eat.

07:04A lion or a wolf has no option to not to kill.

07:12You have that option.

07:16Man is not necessarily a herbivore.

07:21Man is more of an omnivore.

07:24Therefore that option is there.

07:26You could have decided not to kill but you chose in favor of killing.

07:31Therefore you will be punished.

07:34A lion is never punished because the lion had no option.

07:43A lion has done nothing wrong.

07:48In fact even if a lion kills a human being, really it has not committed a crime.

07:57That's how lions are. They are supposed to kill to eat.

08:04But if a man needlessly kills an animal, then the man will be punished.

08:13If not by law, then by existence.

08:19Are you getting it?

08:21So that is a human being in the most clear terms.

08:31A human being is a decision maker.

08:34A human being is someone who has a choice.

08:38How do you define a human being?

08:42He is someone who has a choice.

08:46And how you exercise these choices decides your life.

08:54Choose very very carefully.

08:58Right?

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