I have been trying to understand the rise of Donald Trump from the standpoint of the exquisite theory of karma. What combination of Rajasik and Tamasik karma, mostly the latter, has propelled him to the position of becoming the next president of the United States?
I read up some elementary explanations of the theory of karma in order to understand the advent of the Trump era. There is Satvik karma which is supposed to be selfless and devoid any attachment to accomplishment or material gains. That is the best kind of karma. Even his lifelong toadies are unlikely to honor him with the label of Satvik karma. There is Rajasik karma fueled by personal ambition and selfish gains for self. Then there Tamasik karma that is supposed to be utterly selfish and often achieved through savage means.
There is another approach to the theory as well where philosophers talk of Prarabdh, Sanchita and Agami/Kriyamana. Prarabdh is supposed to be what one has become in the current avatar on the basis of the actions of the previous one. Sanchita is like a storehouse of accumulated actions from the past and Agami/Kriyamana is what is unfolding in the current avatar.
It is complicated. I leave it to your tastes which explanation you want to go with. I am choosing to look at Trump from all of the above but mostly from the standpoint of Tamasik karma because, really, what else is there? If one goes by the rather simplistic understanding of karma as the current life producing rewards and punishments on the basis of what actions one might have indulged in in the previous birth or births, one is hard-pressed to explain Trump’s success. He has to have been truly exceptional in his previous incarnation/s to be able to enjoy this level of material wealth for the first seven decades of his life and then acquire a wholly new perch for the next four or eight years as the world’s most powerful leader.
Trump strains the credibility of the theory of karma on the face of it. If his Agami/Kriyamana karma in his current avatar is what it is supposed to be, how is he where is now? Fortunately for Trump, the theory of karma as I understand it is devoid of any emotional or moral benchmarks in the sense that it does not necessarily enjoin a particular path for jivatman or human being. It seems to say that if you engage in a particular set of actions, you will attain a particular set of results, fruits if you please. If that be the case, then Trump has indeed had an exceptionally successful current incarnation from his selfish standpoint. How else do you explain what he has gotten away with since he began his campaign in June, 2015 right until yesterday’s news conference?
I mention yesterday’s presser in a particularly amusing context. I was looking at that pile of manila folders supposedly containing all the legal documents said to be separating him and his presidency from any possible conflicts of interest. The moment I saw the pile and found what it was supposed to be I asked myself how does anyone know that all those folders actually contain the documents they were claimed to contain. No one in the media demanded to see a single sheet from any of those folders. It is not my case that they did not contain actual legal documents but it is my case that we don’t know if they did. What was the purpose of the pile other than some strange showmanship?
If bringing all those manila folders is also a form of karma, what is the result/reward for that? It beats me.
Note to those who take my exposition seriously or literally or both—Don’t.