Kirpal Singh

On Racial Karma

Question: On page 319 in ‘Spiritual Gems’ it is stated: ‘There is no racial karma.’ We have been taught there is both racial and national karma. Will You please explain this?

Kirpal Singh: Karma, besides being individual vis-a-vis society of which he is a member, may as well be racial or national and in this sense may be called collective karma. Races, like individuals, have their own prides and prejudices; pride of colour as the whites generally have against what they call coloured people, and this prejudice of theirs they manifest in diverse ways: by raising all kinds of colour bars for denial of civic and social rights, political privileges and legal remedies, all of which in course of time redound upon the perpetrators of social indignities and inequalities causing unrest leading, at times, to bloody racial wars. Again, some races boast of superiority of blood in their veins and on that score think that they form a privileged class by themselves favoured by God to rule over and exploit others; but, as is usual in such cases, they are sooner or later overtaken by Nemesis – for they, that rule by the sword, very often perish by the sword.

In like manner, some nations when swayed by national interests, get embroiled in unfair trade competitions, build high tariff walls against other nations and at times even try to boost the sale of their unwanted products on the point of gun with the natural result of reprisals, embargoes and other retaliatory measures from those who suffer from their discriminatory acts and deeds.

Next come what are generally termed and commonly believed to be natural calamities, like floods, famines, earthquakes and epidemics, etc. These too, like all other ills, are the result, more or less, of man’s ignorance of the laws of nature, his incapacity to foresee things and forestall measures necessary to eliminate the threatened disasters. With the progressive advancement in scientific knowledge and technological skill, man is gradually coming to his own, pressing the forces of nature more and more to the service of his kind, and making the most of the potential energy lying hidden and untapped. This is how the law of karma works silently and unnoticed but inexorably to the good or ill as the case may be. In this connection please refer to the book ‘The Wheel of Life.’

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Source: ‘Spiritual Elixir – Part I: IV. Karma: The Law of Action and Reaction,’ (First Edition, 1967) by Kirpal Singh, 1894–1974.