FATALISM.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 127, 14 May 1912, Page 5

FATALISM.

TO THK KDITOK. Sir, —In your columns the question of “Fatalism” has been under discussion, and I note how fixed are the ideas of your correspondents, but no true explanation can be afforded of what is termed “Fatalism” unless we understand the laws of Karma and Beincarnation, and then Fatalism appears in its true light. To infer that irrespective of our actions a fatal forecast of each life is made at birth is not merely ignorance, but it is a blasphemous way of viewing beneficent creation. “Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap,” such is the law which governs man’s destiny, and he cannot escape it, because this great principle' of cause and effect is the law of the Universe. Man’s destiny is therefore in his own hands. Whatever cause he produces, th*consequent effect must follow, so far it is fatalism, but man is free agent—he need not create ' the cause and there wouldd be no effect and therefore no fatalism. But unless we accept the principle of reincarnation the law of Karma will not be clear to us. The fact may be easily recognised that a man reaps what he sows. It is clearly express- 1 ed in daily life, but in order to understand the distinction between Fatalism and Karma, we must accept the truth of reincarnation and realise that actions of past lives come under the law of Karma. Man has come up through many stages of inferior being to his present state of evolution, even from the lowest savage. He has worked his way up through many lives, but on his path he has sown much bad seed of which he must reap the harvest. Though his present life may be an exemplary one and his recent lives free from guilt, there is every probability that in previous lives. there was that which the law of Karma must pursue. If in any past life'he may have created such cause sooner or later the effect would follow, regard- . less of how many lives he may have passed immune. This is the absolute meaning of fatalism, and though many will feel shocked at the idea of wrong-doing being imputed to an apparently good-living man, when Karma overtakes him, and they will regard his fate as unjust, yet we may rest assured that only the immutable law of cause aqd effect has been put in, motion. -We all exist under this law. We cannot escape from it nor from the wheel of life. What we sow we shall have toreap. 'However good we may think ourselves we have only to look baelE through the long vista of past livek and remember we are on the Pathttuf* evolution, although' of coarse we xaamot recollect those lives, but kndlrlfdge of our unevolved state Would"surely show us how many actions We may have committed to bring about the law of retribution. When a dreadful accident or a great catastrophe happens it is blasphmous to call it a “judgment of God.” We are the sole makers of our own destiny, and by the law of cause and effect which rules creation we reap what we show.—l am, etc., THEOSOPHIST.