GOOD OR BAD?
There is a name in Mongolian history synonymous with unbashed cruelty and unmatched brutality. Genghis Khan - meaning 'the universal ruler' - conquered almost the entire world, but in the bargain butchered millions, beheaded cities and terrorized all with his barbaric ways. He would kill the defeated by trampling them with horses, stretching them till their bones split, slicing them slowly while still alive, burning them before they die. It is said that people hoped and waited to see how this callous man would perish - and wished him the most painful, terrible death.
Amidst speculation, he passed away of old age, peacefully in his sleep, like any regular 70 year old, surrounded by a loving family, faithful friends and a bunch of loyal soldiers.
So often, we come across people we perceive as bad, even evil, but we notice that suffering does not seem to touch them - atleast not as much as meted out by them. Their personal grief, we would never be fully aware of, but the overall picture life paints of them looks perfectly fine.While the others, with big hearts and kind words, somehow manage to always bruise themselves, left, right and center. Does this not totally contradict what we have been taught ever since we remember - that good happens to the good, and bad happens to the bad?
Where does this place the theory of Karma - which says what you do will come back to you?
An almost satisfactory explanation to this would be that in the 'end' - the good wins and the bad rots in hell. But isn't life a journey of events and not a mere destination? How good and how satisfying can a win in the end be, if the entire journey was unhappy? And clearly, not all bad things come to a bad end - luck favoured famously the brutal king.
Actually, the fault lies in that one teaching which is the cause of this conflict we all face at some time in our lives. Only good will not happen to the good and only bad will not happen to the bad. All of us have been given packets of good events and bad events, which will take place - IRRESPECTIVE of whether one is a good person or a bad one. Just because someone is labelled as 'bad' he would not miss out on this share of good happenings in his life and if someone is believed to be 'good', that does not mean that no bad can harm him.
That means that being a good person or a bad one - which is how most of us inevitably classify the people in our life - is nothing but a mere choice left to us.
The same things happen to both - how we live them and how we deal with them depends on what we've chosen to become
