Why do bad things happen to good people?

The simple answer is our past karma. Let us understand this with an analogy.

In villages, people use huge granaries to store their grains. The specialty of these granaries is that we pour grains into them from the top, but when we need to take some out, we do so through a hole at the bottom, which is closed with a cover.

Suppose we had week ago, put 'D' quality grains into the granary a 'C' quality grains four days ago, 'B' quality grains two days ago and 'A' quality grains three hours ago. And suddenly, we want our 'A' quality grains, which we know we recently put into the granary. So, we open the cover at the bottom in excitement and lo and behold! What comes out? The 'D' quality grains. As we continue to take the grains out, we get to the 'C' quality grains, and we get frustrated because we cannot understand why we are not getting our 'A' quality grains, which we put into the granary just a few hours a ago.

This is how the law of karma also works. Despite us being the best versions of ourselves, living a pious life and not as harming anyone, we sometimes have to go through traumas, and we cannot figure out the cause, which is frustrating we have been so good our whole life. And someone who is a cheater, who lives a life of sin, is living a prosperous life. Why?

We need to understand that just as in a granary, where the grains that were poured first will come out first, and only when the previous stock is exhausted will the recently added grains come out, so also in this life, our previous stock of karma will play out first. And once that stock is over, the results of our present activities will manifest.

So just because we are not experiencing happiness despite being honest in this life, we should not get disappointed and give up.

And just because someone is living a great life despite being on the wrong side, we should not be discouraged. They are only enjoying the results of their previous good karma, but as soon as that stock runs out, their life will become topsy-turvy.

Every act performed is like sowing a seed. What we sow is what we shall reap. But the seeds do not fructify as soon as they are sown.

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