Create Good Karma
When we desire with our heart and soul to do something noble, the Universe rushes to our aid to
make it happen, says Jamuna Rangachari.
Incthe process, we create good karma for ourselves as well as the rest of the world.
An oft-repeated shloka “Yat bhavam tad bhavati” which, when loosely translated, means “Your dominant feelings get manifested eventually, whether good or bad.” Most of us are unaware of the intensity of our emotions and how they manifest into our reality, often creating unhealthy patterns in our lives. Unwittingly, we blame external circumstances for our situations, never caring to introspect about the intent and motivation behind our apparently noble acts. However, when you realise the power of setting the right intentions, you not only get motivated to take the right action, but you also get help from the Universe in the form of favourable people and circumstances.
Often, it is difficult to see positivity and set a positive intention when we are surrounded by hopelessness and negativity. But such is the power of intent that once you become determined to do something good, it manifests, helping you reap happiness and good karma. This is why we all are always advised to nurture positive thoughts right from childhood. Positive thoughts are the source of positive actions. The sooner we learn this, the earlier we will work on our thoughts and intentions.
We have created a system which uses resources to produce items, consumes them, and then discards the remains, which is purely a capitalistic way of living. But changing times are compelling us to re-evaluate this production and consumption model.
There are examples galore of people who have transformed their lives as well as those of others through positive intent and action.
Facing life with good intent
I always had the intent of helping others in some way and wanted to work with an NGO even though I was a software professional. I approached various organisations, but nothing worked out. I was a bit disappointed but then prayed to the Divine to show me a direction. The divine guided me to Life Positive magazine, which focusses only on doing good work.
Now, thanks to my association with Life Positive, I have had the good fortune of interacting with many people who do good for others. I cover and bring to light their good work through the magazine, which helps not only them but others too who can benefit from the expertise of such people.
This serendipity has happened with many as the Divine knows our intentions and guides us in the direction best suited to us. Even problems are given to us to make us better people in the journey of life. The fact is that problems are just lessons in our earthly sojourn, which many fail to recognise.
Something that many would consider a problem was faced by Mr. Sampath S in Bangalore in 2014 when the water supply did not reach his new house. As construction progressed, he came across the information that rainwater collection and storage could be an alternative source. To combat the occasionally long spells between rains and its shortfall, if any, he could invest in buying a rainwater harvest filter. But the road to getting clean water was a long and hard one.
A similar thing happened with Ms. Sona Kumar in Mumbai. She wanted to help the underprivileged and began an NGO, Sona Sarovar Trust, to fulfil this aim. In 2018, she started coaching classes for rag pickers’ children in Bhagat Singh Nagar, Goregaon West, Mumbai. Eight-year-old Mayakannan Perumal Harijan, who was her student, had
only one arm. Around that time, Sona got a message that the Rotary Club of Bombay Uptown was going to organise a camp to fix artificial limbs for the underprivileged. She was very happy and spoke to the organiser about Mayakannan, and he promised to help him. They were required to complete the formalities, so she called the parents. They were required to produce a doctor’s certificate of disability caused by an accident to facilitate the process. Unfortunately, they had none as the child was born without an arm. This realisation put a spanner in the process for both Sona and Mayakannan.
In Coimbatore, M Sivasamy, a potter, made clay products and used his home as a shop as well as a godown, from where he sold many types of earthen products. However, he was not satisfied with doing traditional work and wanted to do something creative, ingenious, and beneficial to society. Soon, the Universe paved the way for this desire to come true.
How positive intent is supported by the Universe
We will see how the positive and never-say-die spirit of all the above-mentioned people was supported by the Universe as they set out to uproot the challenges.
Not the one to give up without a fight, Sampath bought two of the best rainwater harvesting filters that were commercially available then. Unfortunately, the quality of rainwater collected using these filters was a big dampener—it was muddy. To lessen the turbidity of collected rainwater, he got another filter installed with the help of one of his friends, but even this was not very effective. Simultaneously, fighting the bird menace was also a challenge. He solved both of them after several hits and trials. He used spikes and ultrasonic scares to cover most of the terrace, and in a short time, the bird menace was reduced drastically, bringing huge relief. He developed a low-cost filter system too, which can be made on-site by anyone with some basic tools and common sense.
In addition to the filter, he developed a simple but effective method to determine when to stop the first rain separation (which naturallyMr. Sampath S from Bangalore
carries impurities) so that the pressure on the filter gets eased and one can decide about the quality of water to be processed based on their requirements. His recent development manages how the incoming water with mild turbidity is made to directly get stored at the bottom of the sump tank without mixing it with the already settled clear water at the top or stirring the already settled impurities at the bottom.
Lead story 29
HOPE FOR
Women Who Cannot Conceive
Sujata felt dejected, despondent, and miserable every time she suffered a miscarriage. In the past 12 years, she consulted with every possible doctor and expert in hope of finding a solution to fulfil her desire to become a mother, but nothing worked. She even attempted IVF, but that also failed.
Her futile efforts made Sujata wonder whether motherhood is written in her destiny. Her quest to seek answers brought her to a past life reading of her Akashic Records. If you are wondering what are the Akashic Records, they are the Book of our Past Lives. They help us to understand what the soul was up to in our previous births and whether are we carrying unlearnt lessons from the past into present life. It also shows if we are carrying any blocks
manmeetkumar.com
With Sampath, we can see that age is just a number. He is 68 now and into his eighth consecutive year of exclusively using harvested rooftop rainwater throughout the year for all domestic requirements, including cooking and drinking. Despite his securing a city water supply connection nearly five years ago, he has not been drawing any water from the system.
Sampath’s intention to find a solution that helped everyone enabled him to come up with ingenious innovations. He was awarded the Jala Rushi Puraskar for 2020 by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board for his various water conservation efforts including rainwater harvesting. As he intended to work on sustainability, the Universe responded with a yes, and he accumulated loads of good karma in the process.
In Mayakanna’s case, since his birth certificate had no mention of the missing limb, the Rotary Club asked them to get a corrected
certificate for their son. They couldn’t locate the nursing home where he was born as it had shifted to another locality. Once they found out about the new location, they went to the nursing home, which charged them $500/- for rectifying their (the hospital’s) own mistake. The parents readily agreed as they were eager to get their son’s arm fixed. The Rotary Club Camp continued for a few days and they could get him a new arm.
After that, Sona helped them get the required certificate from the government, and for the first time in eight years, they could avail of the discount for the train journey to their village. They were very happy. All the blocks were removed one by one, thanks to Sona’s unflinching support for the family. The process is still going on, but Sona is happy to have played a role here. Her intent to help Mayakannan not only fructified, but also earned her a lot of good karma.
Even problems are given to us to make us better people in the journey of life. The fact is that
problems are just lessons in our earthly sojourn, which many fail to recognise.
32 LifePositive | DECEMBER 2022
M Sivasamy, the potter from Coimbatore began to take a closer look at the needs of the underprivileged in society. “We used to make just lamps and pots. Then I realised that we had to expand as per the needs of people,” he states.
Sivasamy soon found out that the poor wanted a fridge to store food, but did not have the means to purchase it. Besides, many environmentally friendly urbanites too wanted a home-grown solution to storing food without running up huge power bills. This made him decide to
work on creating a refrigerator made of clay, something which was eco-friendly, affordable, as well as portable. After many failed attempts, Sivasamy was able to construct a portable and eco-friendly refrigerator using clay, which can keep vegetables, milk, curd, and other food items fresh for up to four days, without using electricity.
Sivasamy gets clay from three places, which he mixes to get the right consistency. After doing this, each piece of the fridge is made, which is then dried in the shade. As there are many steps, it takes him one month to make 10 refrigerators. One reason he built this fridge was that he had none in his house as a child. However, he does agree that not having a fridge is one of the reasons for his family’s enjoying good health as nothing was preserved but always obtained fresh.
Apart from eating fresh food, Sivasamy is happy that with his fridge, at least some people might reduce their electricity consumption. He proudly shares that due to people realising the benefits of eating fresh, even doctors are his customers, and the demand for his fridge has picked up in the past four years.
Sivasamy does, however, face the issue of a shortage of labour as many youngsters don’t know the art of pottery and find it below their dignity to dirty their hands, making it difficult for him to make more such products. Nevertheless, he is continuing his mission of promoting sustainability by making eco
friendly products.
We must know that prayer with the right intention makes the Divine listen to us. The time and modalities may not be decided by us, but the outcome surely materialises in the divine cosmos.
“What can we do” is a phrase we need to replace with “I have the intent to help others. Please guide me.” The higher the motivation, the bigger the tenacity to weather the challenges and the greater the joy of accomplishment. The intention of helping others is infinitely nobler than working for selfish motives and can mobilise invisible forces to come to our aid.
While many of us may not work with missions and NGOs, we can certainly work on improving our intentions, thereby improving our karma as well..
Settling karmic accounts with purity of intent Thoughts create intentions and intentions create actions, which eventually become our karma. There are some steps we can all take to make this happen. Our intentions are a part of the toolkit we can always use to create better karma and, in the process, a better life for ourselves and humanity.
In all areas of life, we need to remove the negative intentions to make the positive happen. As it is often said, a pot needs to be cleaned before one pours in clean water. Hence, we need to identify our weaknesses.
We need to examine ourselves critically to find our shortcomings and not play the victim card or blame game. Here, it is essential to take responsibility for whatever wrongs we may have done in the past. To correct these, one needs to pray with pure intention, to be given an opportunity to do so. Very often, this does indeed happen.
I remember I once blamed my maid unknowingly for not taking good care of my home when I had gone out to work while I was in Mumbai. I did not know she had a personal
problem at home with her husband. She left without saying anything, and, subsequently, we were transferred from Mumbai to Delhi. I came to know of her struggle with her husband later from my friend, who said that the husband used to keep dragging her home whenever I was not there, but she would somehow complete the work on most days. I kept praying for an opportunity to set my equation with her right, and this happened when her son came to Delhi where we had been transferred. My friend had given him our number to ask for guidance, and we helped him settle down in his new job.
The greatest moment in this episode was when I took my maid’s number from him, called, and apologised to her. She replied tearfully, “Nobody has ever asked for an apology from
me, Memsahib. I kept thinking of how to apologise to you and you have instead asked for my apology. I must have done some good karma.” This made me realise that my intent of apologising to her resulted in better results than I could ever have expected. I was indeed flabbergasted and thanked her and the divine profusely.
The fact is that the people whom we call underprivileged, often, are more grounded and therefore do know a lot about intention and karma. While we may debate a lot on whether to take responsibility, many of them internalise this divine law of intent and karma though they may not be very articulate in stating it.
Religion, thoughts, intention, and karma All religions of the East, namely, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism believe
strongly in the concept of karma and understand the the importance of thoughts and intention. There are many phrases and concepts related to them which have become a part of the lingua franca of India.
This concept is even observed in corporations now. Former Pepsi CEO, Indra Nooyi, used the phrase “Assume positive intent,” which is a form of empathetic listening that can prevent situations from negatively escalating. The concept is simple: when someone does not do as expected, instead of reacting angrily, assume their actions were driven by good intentions.
This concept is also being used in parenting and teaching, in fact everywhere, for life itself is driven by intentions. This is what, in turn, creates our karma. I remember being vexed with my son for not studying properly. My late mother-in-law, who had parented eight children, advised me to always just
When Jamuna realised that her maid had worked for her in her absence too, despite being opposed by her husband, she aplogised to her
When we think positive despite the negativity which surrounds us, the cobwebs begin to clear and new opportunities emerge
love him without bringing grades in the way. I prayed ardently and also just loved him unconditionally. Truly, when I changed my approach with the positive intent of improving his life and not just his grades, he also started responding with positivity.
The same has been highlighted beautifully in an ancient Indian fable. A sage was feeling incredibly proud of himself. He had left his home to master the scriptures and was certain that he had indeed understood all of them thoroughly after spending many years studying and doing penance. Once, he was meditating under a tree when his meditation broke due to a loud noise. This was due to a crane on the tree which was croaking loudly. The sage stared angrily at the crane. The poor crane burst into flames. The sage looked at the bird, feeling guilty that he had done something horrible. Still, he could not help feeling proud of his powers of concentration for he had destroyed the crane with his thoughts alone.
After this, he went to a nearby village to seek alms. A lady in a house was serving food to her husband. She saw the sage and went back to serving her husband telling him that she would attend to him shortly. The sage bristled at the words of the lady. By the time the lady finished and came out to meet him, the sage was furious from hunger and waiting. The lady smiled and she shook her head saying, “Do you think I am a crane that you could burn with your thoughts?”
The sage was startled. It revealed to him the exalted spiritual level of a mere housewife. He was flabbergasted. After a bit of interaction, the lady directed him to a butcher in a nearby city to understand the purpose of life. The sage went there and was surprised that everyone in the city knew about the butcher and that he was highly respected. The sage was intrigued. He had never heard of a butcher being revered so much. He wished to meet him and went to his shop. The sage saw the man outside his shop as he cut the meat pieces and handed them over to the customers. Before the sage introduced himself, the butcher knew the lady had sent him here. The sage watched him in a kind of trance. He walked back to the butcher’s home with him and saw his entire family. The butcher’s parents were well looked after and his wife looked after the sage well. The butcher’s children were also very well behaved. He asked the butcher the meaning of life as he understood it as he, after all, killed animals for a living. Smilingly, the butcher said “Being a butcher is my profession, in fact, it is my family’s profession. I am not ashamed to do it as it is my duty. I also look after my
family as my duty. I feel the meaning of one’s life is not to allow one’s emotions to rule one’s actions but do one’s duty and meet one’s responsibilities to the best of one’s ability.” By the time the butcher finished, the sage was in a daze. He realised that he had left his parents when they needed him the most. He went back to his parents and served them well till the end of their days.
Conclusion
The intention behind any act is more important than the physical act itself. A man killing another due to his greed, vengeance, anger, or ego is indeed a sin. Similarly, a teacher or parent correcting a child to put them on the right path is a divine act but punishing just to satisfy their ego or pride is definitely a sin, which can never be forgiven by the Divine. This can be looked upon as the hidden law of nature, and we need not add any ‘ism’ to it. No matter how much we lie to ourselves and the world, one’s intention is known to the Divine and the law of karma driven by intention is the supreme law of justice. This law never fails, so
In all areas of life, we need to remove the negative intentions to make the positive happen. As it is often said, a pot needs to be cleaned before one
pours in clean water. Hence, we need to identify our weaknesses. we need to take care of our thoughts every minute of our lives. This is how the universe guides us in the journey of our lives, which is why we must understand that we all are very powerful and need to use our power in the right manner.
In this context, I would like to state a popular shloka that I say every day: “Kara-Caranna Krtam Vaak-Kaaya-Jam Karma-Jam Vaa |Shravanna-Nayana-Jam Vaa Maanasam Va-Aparaadham |Vihitam-Avihitam Vaa Sarvam-Etat-Kssamasva |Jaya Jaya Karunna-Abdhe Shrii-Mahaadeva Shambho.” When loosely translated, it means “Whatever sins have been committed by my actions, knowingly or unknowingly, please forgive me, Mahadev, the ocean of compassion.
Steps to Create Positive Intent
• 1. Listen with empathy to everyone around you
• 2. Never judge anyone
• 3. Forgive everyone including yourself
• 4. Create goodwill with your thoughts, intent, and actions • 5. Remain nonviolent in your thoughts
• 6. Take responsibility to the maximum extent possible
• 7. Pray with a pure intent to set right the wrongs we may have done, knowingly or unknowingly.
One’s intention is known to the Divine
and the law of karma driven by intention
is the supreme law of justice. This law
never fails, so we need to take care of our
thoughts every minute of our lives
38 LifePositive | DECEMBER 2022
Teaching Story: The power of Pure Intent Once, there was a well-known monk who lived in a monastery with his pupils. His teachings were known to be very effective, and many of his students grew up to become great monks themselves.
One day, a student stole something from his fellow students, and the others reported him to the monk. Despite knowing this, the monk took no action. His intention was to reform him. A few days later, he was caught stealing again. This time too, the monk did nothing. The other students threatened to leave if the boy was allowed to stay in the monastery.
The teacher called all of them to his chamber. When they came, he told them “You are good
boys who know what is right and what is wrong. I am sure you will have no trouble joining some other school. But what about your friend who does not even know the difference between right and wrong? Who will teach him if I don’t? Please understand.cannot ask him to go.”
Tears came to the eyes of the boy who had stolen. He never stole again and, later in life, became a great master himself. He never forgot the intent of his master to reform him.
It was the intention of the master to not only reform the delinquent student but also teach the importance of having the right intent to all his students. Such deeds accrue good karma for everyone involved in the equation
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