As You Sow, So Shall You Reap | Radhanath Swami Articles

Life is so shallow, so superficial and actually very lonely when you have so much, but you don’t really know who loves you and who doesn’t, and who is using you. On the other hand, persons who are loved for their integrity and their compassion, are actually respected. There is substance and realness to that. In order to have actual integrity, we have to build our life on a foundation, that is scientific, logical and philosophical, that is based on truth, that we can turn to for protecting us from selling our souls to the deranged nature of ourselves and others. If we can cleanse our hearts, we realize the great glorious foundation that is within us and upon finding it, we can build our life upon it. Then, we will find the ultimate truth in everything we do and say, and we can lead the world in that light.

Now, it appears, why would one want to be righteous? It is much better to be bad. Some people ask, “Why do good things happen to bad people and bad thingsto good people?” Actually, as you sow, so shall you reap.

As you do, so shall you get the result. It is just a matter of time. Consider the example of a silo, a grain storage container, in which we put the grains from the top and take them out from the bottom. So, people put very good grains in, that is, they do righteous activities, virtuous activities. But then often due to bad association, they lower themselves to their dark side and then they commit deviant acts, greedy acts; they become cheaters, roguesand then it’s the dirty rotten grains that they are putting in. So for now,they may be getting the good grains that they had put in earlier. But in due course of time, all the rotten grains are going to come out. There is another person who might have done impious activities in the past, but having learn this lesson, became very righteous and very good. He may be getting rottenthings now, but the future is very bright, auspicious and glorious for him.

So we can’t judge things just by how they appear to our eyes. We must understand philosophically how the world works, then we will get the understanding of what the future holds based on what a person does and how that person lives.

– Radhanath Swami