The subcontinental mind, whichever religion it subscribes to, is seized of the notion of karma, the belief that the Universe conspires to reward or punish us according to our deeds, in the here and now.
What we perceive as karma is however, a complex Gestalt of consequences and Chemistry, that come together to affect our lives in a manner that is modulated by our own actions. The act of connecting with or giving to another human being at an emotional level, releases serotonin, one of the four ‘happiness’ chemicals evolution has gifted us. My saying a joyful or happy word to you, rewards me with serotonin and rewards you with oxytocin.
If my behaviour with you makes you feel good about yourself, there can be two consequences to that, both of which work in different directions but with the same positive effect – one, the positive and loving response from another human to my good behaviour, causes the production and release of oxytocin into my brain, which results in a feeling of happiness in me and similarly in her; the other, the spread of the story of my good word, to others that interact with you. The exchange of happiness about another’s behaviour and actions, causes more happiness to be caused and spread, due to the secretion of the same oxytocin among others who hear of that act of kindness. Scale this across populations and you can imagine the enormous change in social well-being that a happy, positive word, kindness, empathy or a smile can eventually bring to entire civilisations. To me personally, my actions will now result in rewards to me from you. You might happily want to do things for me, to please me, to perpetuate the cycle of serotonin and oxytocin that we have engaged in. You might want to share your happiness and joy with me, further enhancing our chemical induced happiness.
The other two chemicals, endorphin and dopamine, get released during exercise and the acquisition of things and status, respectively. That tells us why exercise and shopping can become addictive – they both release ‘happiness’ chemicals. The purpose here, however, is not to merely understand the role of ‘happiness’ chemicals, but the role they play in what we perceive as karma.
Think about it – these four ‘happiness’ chemicals are what has helped our species in becoming superior to other species, given us our notions of self-awareness and self-worth and made us a species that strives for ever higher goals in every endeavour, physical and intellectual. They have effected, like the proverbial flutter of a butterfly’s wings, increase in human height, improved mental and physical capability and the multiplication of ever widening avenues of endeavour for our species.
Applying this elementary knowledge of the aetiology of happiness, we can see a correlation between wealthy nations and the general observation of their social behaviour – people smile at each other, they say ‘sorry’ and ‘thank you’ and generally exhibit supportive social behaviour. They are not happy because they are wealthy; they are wealthy because they are happy people. Happiness spurs them to be supportive, leading to a cascading happiness which contributes to productive output. Good karma.
There is one more chemical that helps us in the mundane business of survival itself – adrenaline. Adrenaline is secreted in our adrenal glands to marshal our body resources for a fight-or-flight situation. Human civilisation, with rule-based societies, has by an large ensured that an overwhelmingly large majority of us rarely need to resort to the physical act of flight or fight. But our response to threats remains intact. My perception of you as a threat of some sort, can raise my adrenaline levels and cause me to shout angrily at you or threaten to fire you from your job. This now creates a threat for you and raises your adrenaline levels. You may respond in a manner that threatens me further. Very soon, we could both be spiralling down a deep evolutionary tube, causing increasing damage to the other. This can manifest itself as fisticuffs at the corner paan-ki-dukaan or a conspiracy with others, to relieve you of your job, or get you into jail, thus neutralizing the threat to myself.
Most humans have an instinctive empathy, without having to study or be told about ‘happiness’ chemicals, for example. Some, because of an abusive childhood and others maybe by genetic predisposition to violence, are unable to foresee the consequences of their interaction with other humans. This results in behaviour inimical to the creation of happiness and inevitably leads to threatening people around them and at large.
People in public life magnify the effect of their actions many fold. It is not only the loss of ‘happiness’ chemicals that I am addicted to, that are now lost. The threats political actions cause, can affect millions and lead to responses between the extremes of merely losing an election, to assassination or civil war.
So when we see a vile person suffer and attribute that sufffering to karma, it isn’t really a mystical reward from the Universe. Evolutionary responses built into each one of us, have conspired in very small, even insignificant ways, to ensure that vileness is not rewarded, that goodness doesn’t reach that person. A complex interaction of responses from many different quarters, works against such people. It is no secret therefore, why all civilizations celebrate the triumph of ‘good’ over ‘evil’ -it’s just a matter of action and reward, dictated by oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine and adrenaline.
Look around you and try to connect your responses to office squabbles, political chicanery, social violence and vileness, to the action and reward systems built by evolution, into all of us.
