The king can do no wrong - Bhagavad Gita ch4:14

You may have heard of diplomatic immunity. It's a modern equivalent of a time in the past when the king could do no wrong.

In our historic past there were occasions when we were ruled by monarchy. In those days it was thought that the king was ordained by God. Therefore he could do no wrong.

Furthermore, the king made the laws, yet he was above the law. The king was the hand of God on earth. Those were the good old days.

If we go back far enough, there was a time in ancient culture, in a more pious era, where there were wise and saintly kings, called rajarshi or raja-rishi, who were not only good generals and administrators, but also wise and pious philosophers.

Such rajarshis would be revered. Not only that, but the state would be well run and the people happy. Now such days are long gone. Occasionally on rare occasions we may still get a philosopher king, like the president of El Salvador today, Nayeb Bukele, who dubs himself a philosopher king.

He has cleaned up the drug gangs by imprisoning them all, thereby massively reducing the crime rate, which used to be one of the worst in the world until he took over.

He also was the first ever head of state to declare Bitcoin a legal tender, while opening his nation to Bitcoin investment and mining, thus massively improving his nation's economy and balance sheet, while empowering the people with bitcoin self-custody.

Outside of El Salvador's new philosopher king, no head of state seems to be loved by the people who voted him in. And certainly few, if any, hereditary monarch is much respected by the citizens of their nation any more. Thailand and some nations still have symbolic monarchs who are more ceremonial than anything, who might be loved merely out of etiquette and custom.

Therfore today the king is not above the law. Despite diplomatic immunity, even the head of state is still held accountable in our modern system, with its separation of judiciary and executive branches of power in government.

Also karma excuses no one. We are all obliged to reap the consequences of what we've sewn. We're all obliged to accept the laws of nature, from king to beggar.

Only the rarest individual achieves liberation from the laws of karma by reaching the transcendental platform, where they are in touch with the Divine source in a mood of service.

Such a liberated soul could appear as a saintly king or as a madman and social outcast. One can't always tell from the externals. Still, today they are the exception, not the norm.

The rest of us will be bound to enjoy or suffer the fruits of our action, for better or worse, and knowing that is sometimes enough of a catalyst to inspire one to find the way to transcend these shackles, even if it takes a lifetime.

Bhagavad Gita ch4:14

na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti
na me karma-phale spṛhā
iti māṁ yo 'bhijānāti
karmabhir na sa badhyate

SYNONYMS
na—never; mām—unto Me; karmāṇi—all kinds of work; limpanti—do affect; na—nor; me—My; karma-phale—in fruitive action; spṛhā—aspiration; iti—thus; mām—unto Me; yaḥ—one who; abhijānāti—does know; karmabhiḥ—by the reaction of such work; na—never does; saḥ—he; badhyate—become entangled

TRANSLATION
There is no work that affects Me; nor do I aspire for the fruits of action. One who understands this truth about Me also does not become entangled in the fruitive reactions of work.

PURPORT
As there are constitutional laws in the material world stating that the king can do no wrong, or that the king is not subject to the state laws, similarly the Lord, although He is the creator of this material world, is not affected by the activities of the material world. He creates and remains aloof from the creation, whereas the living entities are entangled in the fruitive results of material activities because of their propensity for lording it over material resources. The proprietor of an establishment is not responsible for the right and wrong activities of the workers, but the workers are themselves responsible. The living entities are engaged in their respective activities of sense gratification, and these activities are not ordained by the Lord. For advancement of sense gratification, the living entities are engaged in the work of this world, and they aspire to heavenly happiness after death. The Lord, being full in Himself, has no attraction for so-called heavenly happiness. The heavenly demigods are only His engaged servants. The proprietor never desires the low-grade happiness such as the workers may desire. He is aloof from the material actions and reactions. For example, the rains are not responsible for different types of vegetation that appear on the earth, although without such rains there is no possibility of vegetative growth. Vedic smṛti confirms this fact as follows:
nimitta-mātram evāsau sṛjyānāṁ sarga-karmaṇi
pradhāna-kāraṇī-bhūtā yato vai sṛjya-śaktayaḥ.
In the material creations, the Lord is only the supreme cause. The immediate cause is material nature by which the cosmic manifestation is visible. The created beings are of many varieties, such as the demigods, human beings and lower animals, and all of them are subject to the reactions of their past good or bad activities. The Lord only gives them the proper facilities for such activities and the regulations of the modes of nature, but He is never responsible for their past and present activities. In the Vedānta-sūtras it is confirmed that the Lord is never partial to any living entity. The living entity is responsible for his own acts. The Lord only gives him facilities, through the agency of material nature, the external energy. Anyone who is fully conversant with all the intricacies of this law of karma, or fruitive activities, does not become affected by the results of his activities. In other words, the person who understands this transcendental nature of the Lord is an experienced man in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and thus he is never subjected to the laws of karma. One who does not know the transcendental nature of the Lord and who thinks that the activities of the Lord are aimed at fruitive results, as are the activities of the ordinary living entities, certainly becomes entangled himself in fruitive reaction. But one who knows the Supreme Truth is a liberated soul fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Reference: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, translation and commentary by Swami A C Bhaktivedanta, original MacMillan 1972 edition, freely available at prabhupadabooks.com.

Image: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/ai-generated-lord-shiva-king-9272185/

Edited and published from my mobile device onto the Hive blockchain for seekers of liberation from karma.