God gives, God takes

Sri Ramana Maharshi

18-9-1945 afternoon

A group of Bengalis have come. One of them has recently lost a child. He put the questions to Bhagavan, "Why did that child die so young? Is it his karma or our karma that we should have this grief?"

Bhagavan: The prarabdha which the child had to work out in this life was over and so it passed away. So we may call it the child's karma. So far as you are concerned, it is open to you not to grieve over it, but to remain calm and unaffected by it, being convinced that the child was not yours but always only God's, that God gave and God took away. 

In this connection Bhagavan took out the Yoga Vasishtha in English to refer to the story of Punya and Pavana. Strange to say, when he casually opened the book, it actually opened at the story he had in mind. And from the book he asked me to read out the portion where Punya advises his brother Pavana not to grieve foolishly over the death of their parents, pointing out that Pavana had had innumerable births in the past, in each one of which he had a number of relations and that exactly as he is not mourning for the death of all those relations now, he should not mourn for the death of their father either.

The visitor asked, "When a person dies while yet a child and another lives long, which of them is the greater sinner?"

B: I cannot say.

I told the visitor that the data he had given could not by themselves enable anyone to judge which was the greater sinner.

Visitor: If a person lives long, he has greater chances of perfecting steps to reach realization.

B: The person dying young may soon be reborn and have in that life better chances of striving towards realization than the other person living long in this life.