Karma Chronicles - Is Khaled Hosseini Right?

May 24, 2013

I came across a very interesting interview with Khaled Hosseini, published in the Economic Times.

Q. In your new book, And the Mountains Echoed, one of the main characters is an Afghan-born physician in America, like you. He is embarrassed that he's sweating the details of his new home theatre while his countrymen are suffering. Do you have similar guilt?
A. Of course. I always have. The only reason I'm not where they are is just pure luck; it's just a stupid genetic lottery. It's an unmerited gift to have this life. My books became successful way beyond any reasonable expectation and were about those people on the streets. I felt that in some way I had profited from their wretchedness.

Q. Do you imagine it would have been published if September 11 had not happened?

A. Who knows? You have to be honest. It opened doors. But believe it or not, as I was trying to find an agent in June 2002, I received a rejection that said, "We like your book, but we're really looking for stories about Iraq now."

Q. Incredible. Even publishing was banking on an Iraq invasion?

A. You expect to be rejected, but what upset me about it was what it meant for Afghanistan. That was a foreshadowing of what happened - that Iraq would overshadow the campaign and absorb military resources. I landed in Kabul the day before "shock and awe" in Iraq, and you could all but hear the collective groan.

The interview is fascinating in itself; this post is should not distract from that. Khaled Hosseini is a fantastic writer and I wish I could write like him. His latest book (the interview was published to highlight news of this latest publication), "And the Moutains Echoed" has been published to rave reviews and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Yet, the excerpts I quoted above, provide a nice segue to some thoughts on the Law of Karma. From the perspective of the Law of Karma as Eastern religions tend to see it, there are a few flaws in what Mr Hosseini says:

Ours is not an unmerited life. Adi Shankaracharya makes it absolutely clear in the Vivekachudamani that this human birth is the result of numerous lives of merit. It also provides us a unique opportunity to gain moksha, liberation from the endless cycle of birth and death. So, this is not a "stupid genetic lottery".
The author's karma (act) of writing the book and the take-off as a bestseller thanks to the interest in Afghanistan following the tragedy of September 11th is just a fateful juxtaposition and he need bear no guilt on that count. I do understand the emotional reaction when one thinks of the Afghans who do not have a choice of leaving it all behind.
I shudder to think of the incalculable cost of the war in Iraq that Americans and everyone in the world will have to pay for many more years to come. That karma payout will be infallible, inexplicable and has already set off countless cycles of hate.

For previous posts of Karma Chronicles, click here. Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

Geeta Dhyānaṁ 2 - Vyāsā's Vast Intellect

January 7, 2013 Previously on Geeta Jayanti, I had posted on the eternal debt of gratitude to Mother Geeta that is the basis of Geeta Dhyānaṁ. I love Param Pujya Gurudev 's commentary on the Geeta Dhyānaṁ. Pujya Gurudev's commentary is after the introduction to the Bhagavad Geeta in the commentary on Chapters 1 & 2 published by the the Chinmaya Mission. I personally believe it should be a book by itself. After invoking Mother Geeta, we now pay tribute to the wise Vyāsa Rishi - the Guru whose Jayanti marks Guru Pūrnima every year. Pujya Gurudev starts His tribute to Veda Vyāsā in his commentary on the 1st verse of the Dhyānaṁ. Vyāsa, the father of the Vedās, who, first collected, edited and published the Veda texts and who thereafter, gave us the dialectics of Vedānta in his Brahma Sūtra, himself a great man of realization, was indeed well fitted for the job. The ancient seer had both the mastery of the theoretical science of religion - Hinduism and also the practical expe...

In every field, let Dharma flourish - क्षेत्रे क्षेत्रे धर्म कुरु

August 9, 2012 Swamini Vimalanandaji has done a series of talks at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) called "406 SMS – Sure Mantras for Success from Bhagwad Geeta" (item 406 at this AMA link ). In this she has a very interesting take on the 1st line of the Bhagavad Geeta. धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे १-१ dharmakShetre kurukShetre 1-1 <i> on the holy plain of Kurukshetra... </i> Swamini turns that slightly and says, क्षेत्रे क्षेत्रे धर्म कुरु - kShetre kShetre dharma kuru. Swamini goes on to establish that we can use this mantra to make that: "In every aspect of society, must be pervaded by Dharma" Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

Geeta in Literature - IF by Rudyard Kipling

September 12, 2011 I came across a nice YouTube video that is an animation of Rudyard Kipling reading his famous poem IF . The full text sourced from wikisource is below: If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same: If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And los...

Everyday Geeta

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