Buy good karma, fund my addiction

Ancient teachings lost in popular culture

By Zara Urvashi Ramaniah

As Summer starts to flex her muscles, gracing us with sunshine every now and then, there seem to be more and more people lounging around downtown St. John’s.

Thrilled with the warmth and sun, I spent a day wandering back and forth on Water Street, soaking up the sun and people-watching. Since ,then I’ve been downtown more often than I have this past fall and winter semesters combined.

I came across people with their hats on the pavement asking passersby to contribute to their cigarette and alcohol fund. The honesty was refreshing and fairly amusing. Why not drop some change, as long as you know it’s probably going to fund drugs other than alcohol and nicotine.

Then, a few days later, I saw two men sat with a piece of cardboard that read something along the lines of “Give for good karma.”

Now, with the former, I admire the honesty; the latter, however, really bothers me.

I admit to being tempted to drop some change for luck—I have a midterm looming in a course I fear more than food poisoning—so I wouldn’t mind a few cosmic gold stars going into that exam.

Trouble is, karma doesn’t work like that, and I feel sorry for the poor sods that have dropped a toonie or two in the hope that some divine balance will weigh in their favour.

Now, I’m all for charitable giving, and I don’t even have anything against the guys who’re being straight up about the fact that your money’s going into their addiction piggy bank. But buying good karma?

The idea of karma has its foundations in the oldest surviving religion of the world: Hinduism. The importance of karma was first recorded in the Bhagavad Gita, The Song of God, in the Mahabharata, one of the two most important epic tales in Hinduism.

The Bhagavad Gita is where the god Krishna tells Arjuna about his duties of a prince and warrior. More than that, however, the Bhagavad Gita dictates the duties every man and woman should follow so they can reach moksha, freedom: release from the cycle of rebirth, so they don’t keep coming back to this world of suffering and misery.

Somewhere along the way, as Hindu teachings have found a way into popular culture worldwide, a lot of the meaning behind these sacred texts has been lost.

The result: people trying to sell you good karma in the streets of St. John’s.

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