A human being is ushered into this world as a composite entity of physical body, mind, senses, intellect, ego-self and soul. And on death, the human soul along with its accompaniments or appendages—mind, subtle senses, intellect and ego—leaves the dead body. The life span is the period of time between the moment when a human infant first breathes outside his mother’s womb and the moment when his breathing ceases.
Therefore, the human being begins and ends his sojourn on this planet earth empty-handed. In between birth and death, he lays his hands on wealth, and before his death, he bequeaths it to his children and leaves this world without a dime. Thus, whatever money, bullion, ornament, stocks and shares, property, and other movable or immovable assets are acquired by man in his life, the same is either transferred or lost or bequeathed to others by the time of death or even after it. Life is indeed a zero-sum game.
Whatever matter comes to a living being from the environment inexorably goes back to the environment. The food that we eat, the water that we drink and even the air that we breathe are returned to the environment. Is it not so? We must understand that we are a part and parcel of this environment, and the matter is indestructible. Matter cannot be created or destroyed; it only changes form.
In the context of human beings, all actions have an equal and opposite reaction. What you sow, so shall you reap. The law of cause and effect operates seamlessly in the universe. The result is always commensurate with the efforts.
Only the manner, method and time of bestowal of your karma’s reward may change. But the reward does not change qualitatively or quantitatively vis-a-vis the action. If the action is virtuous, it attracts reward, and if the action is vicious, it attracts punishment. The supreme controller dispenses perfect justice to all living organisms, including human beings.
In civilised human-society interactions also, we observe that what goes out immediately or eventually comes back to a person. If you disrespect others, you are derided and disrespected. If you love others, you are loved in return. If you are kind and helpful in dealings with others, you get help from them in your times of need.
Anger, hatred, jealousy, compassion, love etc. all reflect similar emotions from human subjects. It must be remembered that human action occurs through three modes—thought, speech and physical action. Such human action or karma is subject to the law of cause and effect as stated above. No qualitative karma sticks to you. It inexorably comes back to you as the retributive fruit of the action performed by you. What goes out comes back both qualitatively and quantitatively with complete precision and this serves to maintain dynamic equilibrium in the universe.
Maintenance of harmony and balance in nature requires that life remains eternally a no-gain no-loss phenomenon in material terms. Nature is a great balancer and equaliser. The dynamic equilibrium that we observe in nature is an eloquent testimony to the fact that material entities of the universe are conserved. The living entities may work upon them in multifarious ways, but the law of conservation of matter stands in silent testimony to the fact that primaeval matter is indestructible. This is a prime metaphysical truth.
That is how life has been subjected to material nature by the supreme controller of the universe and that is the perfect way for it as it is ascribed to the omniscient, omnipotent Creator. Scientists have discovered that anti-matter exists alongside matter and that black holes exist alongside scattered energy in the universe.
The sum total of matter, antimatter, energy and black holes is zero and this zero denotes primordial matter. Life is eternal because spiritual entities are unborn and indestructible. All attributes of material entities of the universe exist in dualities like high-low, up-down, big-small, success-failure, happiness-sorrow, birth-death, and the sum total of material entities considered with such attributes is also a zero.
The above statements testify to the fact that the flow of life in the universe comprises positives and equivalent negatives all over. Is it then any wonder that the eternal conscious existence called life is
a zero-sum game?
Sehgal is the author of Guide to Inner Wellness and The Essence of Bhagwadgita—70 Verses at its Core