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When Good Deed
Is Repaid With
"Evil"
- Editorial
Ms. A is unhappy with her present life and living. She needs to move on. Incidentally, Ms. A. contacts Mr. B with a statement that she was referred to Mr. B by someone highly regarded by Mr. B.
Based on the claimed recommendation and without hesitation, Mr. B springs into action, freely doing everything and even more to help and
assist Ms. A. However, Ms. A. takes the help for granted since it came more easily than expected. Subsequently, Ms. A. demands additional help from Mr. B, but Mr. B finds the additional demand very uncomfortable and politely turns it down. Ms. A. looking at things only from her own angle and concern is unhappy that Mr. B did not go ahead to grant her
additional wish. Ms. A. fails to appreciate the fact that her demand is
inconsiderate and indeed very uncomfortable to Mr. B, and that rarely would any other person in Mr. B’s situation grant such request. Ms. A. then revolts against Mr. B regardless of the help Mr. B had offered her all the while. Ms. A goes ahead to tarnish the image and honor of Mr. B just to satisfy
herself and make her story sound good.
Many individuals may have found themselves in such (or similar) situation before. Naturally, they have wondered why the “Ms. As” of the world turn out to be so ungrateful or inconsiderate. Why would God allow such unfairness? Some have queried. Why would goodness be repaid by evil or ingratitude? Isn’t it the law that what one sows is what one reaps?
It is easy to stand aside and say; don’t worry; God will pay back the ingrate. However, only the offended will be able to tell how it really hurts for someone to be paid back in an evil coin when that person has tried to help from the goodness of the heart. It is like how Julius Caesar felt when Brutus his dear friend joined the other conspiring Roman Senators to stab him at the Capitol. That Caesar’s trusted friend Brutus would stab Caesar caused Caesar’s heart to give up quickly. The injuries received from the blows by other senators did not hurt Caesar as much as did the blow by Brutus. Such blows to the heart sometimes leave emotional dents that are hard to overcome. Yet, we ought to understand them to be able to overcome them, or at least deal with them.
Basic to this understanding is that an act that may appear “evil” or “unfair” may actually bring about a good result. Put in another way, a deed may not simply be an evil or good deed. The important thing is to understand the place of such deed in the chain of cause and effect. That is what life is all about. As a great master once said, “Life is but a perpetual balancing of accounts.”
Yes, truly, the person who goes about repaying kindness and good deeds with wickedness and evil will someday get the reward. It is likely that we may easily agree on that. However, the concerning question is; why would someone’s good deed attract the reward of “evil” instead of “goodness” in the first place? Perhaps a look at life from a wider perspective might help answer the question. Perhaps it all boils down to the law of life called by various names such as “retribution,” “cause and effect,” “karma,” “action and reaction,” etc. An understanding of this law could bring about an appreciation of the fact that hardly is there an accident in life. Everything happens for a reason; to balance things by paying a debt, rewarding a credit, or setting up various circumstances that need to be for a necessary lesson that has to be learnt in life.
Sometimes it may be difficult to comprehend. However, it is consoling to know that although it may seem that one’s good deed is being repaid with evil, one is perhaps balancing out a debt he or she may owe from the past. It could be that the seeming evil deed was meant to set up the individual for a greater reward and indeed a later blessing (even in disguise). Sometimes, an individual may need to go through such maltreatment as part of a process of purification which some call the “dark night of Soul.” It is like going through the crucible of the purifying fire that makes the individual an improved being. It is like the anguish of going through the dark tunnel that eventually leads to the satisfaction that comes with the attainment of the revealing and soothing light at the end of the tunnel. Importantly, the individual may have been reminded how it feels to be treated with evil so he may know better and abstain from falling back on the ladder of consciousness. In any event, and on the brighter side, the offended individual could take solace in the fact that at least; he is not creating a debit/debt/injury that he would need to repay in the future. His life is actually better off as the record of his life gains a credit rather than a debit.
Now, let us consider the fate of the individual who repays good deeds with evil. No doubt, this individual has created a debit/debt/injury that he would have to repay sometime in this life or the next, depending. So, while the person who has done the good deed that was repaid with evil could happily move on saying “I am now free and need not pay for that debt again,” the person who incurred the debit by such evil act will someday confront his evil deed. For the moment, he may not even see such act as an evil deed, and he/she may be right because as we pointed out earlier “good” or “evil” could be relative and subjective. However, the objective test remains – what is the place of such act in the play of cause and effect? What is the attainment of such act or deed? Is it the sharing of love and harmony (positive/credit), or the spreading of bitterness and rancor (negative/debit)? That would help determine how such act or deed may be entered in the individual’s ledger of life – debit or credit. By creating negative karma or earning a negative entry, the individual has incurred a debt that he must repay, sometime.
The man of good deed who may have been repaid with "evil" has actually made progress because the act against him may have balanced out a negative entry in his ledger of life. That puts him ahead in the journey back home to God. Therein lies the consolation. This is only my understanding, and I am still learning but what do you think?
The Good Man’s Solace
The ungrateful person may care so little
Yet, when in evil he repays a good deed
He brings to balance the good man’s ledger
And enter a debit in his life’s own record.
And though the good man evil suffers
He does in his ledger make some progress
While the ingrate must one day pay his debt,
And therein lies the good man’s solace.
© 2004 Oliver Mbamara
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Oliver Mbamara is an Administrative Law Judge
with the State of New York. He is also a filmmaker and a Published Poet
and playwright. For more on Oliver, please visit www.olivermbamara.com
For
background/research reference on this piece, click on this link
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