Question to Radhanath Swami: Even when we are doing business, in one sense we are exploiting others. So by the laws of karma, are we going to get reactions for all that?
Radhanath Swami: In this world, exploitation is inevitable. Just to survive, people are exploiting each other. But we should try, as far as possible, not to do that beyond what’s necessary. In business our motivation should not be to destroy others. Our motivation should be, to be the best we could be. Yes, we may have to try to defeat competition, but that shouldn’t be done in a malicious way. If we are malicious, we are going to get all the karma for that—100%.
If, however, we are trying to do better than others in an honest way, with integrity, there will be some karma, but it will be minimized. And we should give some of our profits for spiritual charity. Now, if you are really doing things in a malicious way, then even if we give in spiritual charity, the karma will come on us. But if we are trying to do things with proper integrity and honor, if we give some of the results to a charitable spiritual cause, and if we purify our own hearts by chanting Gods name and by other methods, we can rise above those minimal karmas and they will not seriously affect us.
(to summarize….) If we have a spirit of compassion rather than the spirit of greed, the karma is nullified. But if we are motivated by greed, selfishness and we hurt others beyond the need, serious karma will come upon us.
