My privilige

I am a member of the most priviliged group of humans on the planet. This is what I wrote about it in my notebook:

I am blessed. The amount of good fortuen and priviledge in my life is astounding.. To be able to travel here to this holy place is a privilege unimaginable to the masses who must spend their entire lives toiling in only one place, usually within kilometers of their birthplace. The people here dream of America--a trip to america for them would amount to many times their life savings. And I begin to understand why they dream of america. There is good reason for me to hate my country, particularly it's government, but my streets and water are immaculatly clean, I will be free to choose my own wife, my life's work will be done out of devotion, love and interest and not to make money to survive. I am blessed to be in a position where I can understand the unimportance of material objects--that I brought nothing with me into this world, and will take nothing with me when I leave. If I was daily struggling to survive, this attitude would be ludicrous, impossible.

A good Hindu would say that all this privilige that came from the circumstances of my birth and my parents came from the good Karma of a past life. However, this concept doesn't sit right with me, because it seems to release me from the responsibilities that I beleive come with privilige--if I actually earned the life I am living, then I am entitled just to enjoy it, and not feel duty bound to use my privilige to help other humans. But if I just am lucky, then I do beleive I have a duty to act morally. It's why Sartre provides the most firm basis for morality and responsiblility--if we are just flung into this life without rhyme or reason, then we have a responsibility to ourselves to live it.

I have been finding myself objecting more and more to the idea of Karma in general. Not because I don't beleive in reincarnation, because (and this came as a surprise to me) there's room in my worldview for reincarnation. But Karma is double edged--it does give us the responsiblility to act morally, but it also entitles us to take injustice as it is and leave it be. The caste system is built on Karma--if you are born in a low caste, it is because you had bad karma, and the only way to be released from that caste is to die and be reborn. Also, Karma depends on the type of authoritative external god which I will never beleive in--it depends on a God that much resembles the Christian or Jewish god that sits around and tallies up your good and bad actions. I will never beleive in absolute morality, I will only beleive in the spirit of things as they are.

I have posted already about hinduism. Expect some post soon about what my spiritual conciousness has lead me personally to beleive--I want to write it up and share it soon. But not now. I have to go bang on drums.

love
jed