We Don't Know How Karma Works

Question: There is a topic that is important to devotees: What about cows that are being butchered? Is it karma? Is it because in their previous lives they committed sinful activities? For example, right now there is a genocide going on in Palestine, Israel. Is it their karma, or are there other factors involved?  

Answer: The idea of attributing karma as the explanation of others’ suffering is, in a sense, not relevant for devotees. Why? Because it may lead to the conclusion that somehow “it’s okay. It’s their karma.” The problem is that if one has that understanding, then one’s own inaction to an injustice imposed on others becomes one’s own karma. When we speak of karma in relation to suffering, we think of this in relation to ourselves. Of course, then devotees immediately turn from recognizing karma as the cause of suffering to seeing the Lord’s kindness in minimizing that karma.

I think we have to be quite careful with this idea: “This is their karma.” We don’t know. We ultimately cannot fathom how karma works. We know it works. But how does it work? We cannot fathom. Naturally, we want to understand causality. But we are also cautioned about that. We see in Bhāgavatam, Сanto 1, chapter 17, the bull personification of dharma refuses to point out the cause of his suffering. When he’s asked by Maharaj Pariksit, “Who has done this to you”?, cutting three of his legs, he [the bull] kind of says: “I don’t know.” He gives a sort of philosophical analysis: “Some say it’s karma, some say it’s time”, and so on. He gives a few options. But he won’t settle on any specific cause. And then Maharaj Pariksit says, “This shows that you are indeed dharma personified. Because you recognize that to accuse someone of being the cause of someone’s suffering, or your own suffering, is to be implicated in the same condition of action and reaction.”

I think we are encouraged to follow the example of the bull Dharma, with respect to ourselves. But when we see injustice inflicted on others, then we should speak up. We should speak the truth.

—From the lecture on Ahimsa as the Essence of Dharma, by H.H. Krishna Kshetra Swami, on September 17, 2025, in Prabhupadadesh, ISKCON Temple, Albettone, Italy. (Based on the book Yoga and Animal Ethics, by Kennth R. Valpey, published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2025; legal open access: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-93361-5)

The Hidden Padá 

[…] The web of bovine signification extends yet further when words indicating parts of a cow’s body are included. So, for example, the word padá means “cow’s hoofprint”; and it also means track, sojourn, region, (metrical) foot, radius, (single) word, and speech. Calasso (2015, p. 19) notes, “If we are talking about the ‘hidden padá’, [Louis] Renou says it is ‘the mystery par excellence, which the poet tries to reveal’. Already we are a long way from the cow’s hoof print, which itself is mysterious and venerable, since a special ‘libation on the hoof print,’ padāhuti, is dedicated to it.”

—From the book Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics by Kennth R. Valpey (HH Krishna Kshetra Swami), published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2020. The legal open access download version is available at https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-28408-4