��ѿ��ý

Available for over a year

Good morning. It was reported this week that just before his death last year, Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the infamous AK-47 assault rifle wrote to the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church to express his unbearable spiritual pain. “I keep having the same unresolved question,” he wrote, “if my rifle claimed people’s lives, then can it be that I was to blame for their deaths?” The Hindu tradition would applaud this sentiment. And, the question he raises about direct and indirect responsibility is debated in many Vedic texts. Kalashnikov designed his AK-47 in the wake of the Second World War, conscious of the horrors his country had suffered but he didn’t foresee his creation would become perhaps the most effective killing machine ever. It was only much later, he suspected that you don’t have to be the one to pull the trigger to be responsible for those who die from the bullets fired. Just as a stone in the pond creates ripples in all directions, so our actions – even those that are well-intentioned – can have unfortunate results. And, as much as we benefit from the positive ones, we incur liability for the negative consequences. In the Ramayan epic, there is a story of a murderous thief called Ratnakar. He was challenged by the sage Narada: You say you are committing all these crimes to support your family. Will they agree to share in the reckoning for your actions? Ratnkar was sure they would; but when asked, his wife and kids replied: “No chance. Your job is to maintain us - so all the repercussions from how you do that should fall on you alone.” Reeling from this harsh verdict from his family, Ratnakar decided he needed a change of career. But, the texts explain that Ratnakar’s family members were wrong – they had benefitted personally from Ratnakar’s crimes and they, therefore, shared with him moral responsibility for all those he’d robbed and killed. This Ramayan story is intended as a warning that we, like Ratnakar’s family, might be reaping benefits from all sorts of things carried out on our behalf, but by not recognising, nor caring enough about the downside to others we may fail to appreciate the extent of our culpability. Mr Kalashnikov was 94 years old when he reached out for spiritual solace to assuage his remorse. If selfishness and survival were all we’re about as humans, would we not cheerfully celebrate whatever actions had been needed to get us through to old age? But instead, the passing of years make us more inclined to resolve past errors and atone for hurt caused. He signed off his letter to the Church: “Slave of God, designer Mikhail Kalashnikov”. With these words, he identified both his moral duty and his earthly role and underlined the challenge that humans face resolving the two.