BBC Radio 4 2016-03-03

BBC Radio 4 2016-03-03

Good morning. Within the decades of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the bombing in Omagh was particularly shocking in its murderous wanton evil. Now, with the collapse of the case against Seamus Daly, the families of the victims say, they have lost “their last chance for justice.” And, with that, perhaps they feel, their best hope for some closure for their grief.

I’ve found there’s widespread instinct amongst many, many people that the world should be fair – that good deserves rewarding and that wrong-doers should get their come-uppance. It’s a conviction that seems incongruous with the idea of a world driven by random physical forces. Are we simply hard-wired for optimism? Or, as many Hindus would say, is it an indication we’re instinctively aware of a process within the universe that balances out our actions and their repercussions?

This is sometimes termed the Law of Karma – and like many aspects of Hindu theology – oft misunderstood. Karma is not fatalistic – it is based on humans having freewill. Karma is simply the extrapolation of our use of that freewill. But it’s not simple, nor linear. It’s probably more like Chaos Theory: a butterfly flaps its wings and a hurricane happens. Many Hindu texts say that the specific outcomes from our actions are just as complex and unfathomable. And, they warn us, therefore, never to be judgemental, as we have no idea what effect has been caused by what action.

Nor does karma usually have immediate effect– it plays out over many lifetimes. It’s connected with another Hindu idea – reincarnation – the transmigration of the soul through a series of many lives. Using an analogy: if I get a speeding ticket, but I claim that I’ve since sold the car involved in the incident. Does that mean I can get off the penalty? No, the liability still lies with me, the driver, not the vehicle. Similarly, the Vedic texts say: karmic consequences remain with me, as the soul, even though I have long since departed from the body in which I committed the crime.

And, karma offers no excuse for inaction in this life. In Hindu terms, the state has its own karmic responsibility to fulfil its duty and provide protection and justice so that the wrong and hurt to victims is mitigated as far as possible – and this was the intention in the Omagh case.

Michael Gallagher, the father of one of the victims said on Tuesday: “barring a road-to-Damascus conversion and a confession…those behind the Omagh bomb plot have got away with it.” I believe that the sense of a just universe is deep in many hearts; and so also is the soul’s related need for confession and absolution. Some day we might hear such an admission. That would be far better than leaving it to the mysterious and inexorable processes of karma to balance it all out.