10. The Essence of the Human Being

GA 68d/1907-07-02/p058 ·1907-07-02 · English High

Record: mixed sources. This volume draws on more than one kind of record (transcripts, notes, documents). Check the volume's own front matter before weighing a single passage. Evidence: «Vorträge aus den Jahren 1905 bis 1909 in Form von ausführlichen Mitschriften, Zuhörernotizen und Zeitungsreferaten» (Lectures from the years 1905 to 1909 in the form of detailed transcripts, listeners' notes and newspaper reports). The publisher's description of the volume, as mirrored on AnthroWiki (GA 68d). The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one.

And this connection between events that happen later and those that happen earlier is called [“krama” — not “karma”]. A certain [krama] emerges from every course of life for every person. There is something deeply reconciling about this when viewed in the right way; because when we often see a hardworking, good person condemned to poverty and misery in life, and another, seemingly without any merit, living in happiness and joy, then we may well ask in vain how this can be, which seems so unjust! But if we know the law of [Krma], if we know that everyone prepares their own destiny, that [Krma] is a law of life, if we know that everything I do bears its fruit, if I do something foolish, evil, then the fruits will be the same, if I do good, then happiness and joy will be the result - then this law will be something deeply reconciling for everyone, and when it not only theoretically but truly illuminates a person's life, then it will unfold new powers in him, it will give him confidence, orientation and security in life.

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Cite: GA 68d/1907-07-02/p058 · edition English