April 2016
Karma, the supreme teacher, is the key to the mystery of life. Only knowledge of karma can unravel the purpose of life and how to live it, says Suma Varughese
A couple of years ago, my sister, also unmarried and living in a flat a few floors below mine in the same building, fell badly ill. Eventually, my mother and I moved her into our flat. I was struck by the play of events. I had stayed in my sister’s house for close to 10 years and she had nursed me through a dangerous illness. Now it was my turn to do the same. The law of karma had passed the verdict. [The author explains how karma sheds light on the vagaries and the apparent unfairness of life, drawing reference from the life of Dr Annie Besant whose faith in God was restored after reading Madame Blavatsky’sThe Secret Doctrine, where she expounds the Hindu philosophy of karma and reincarnation. Besant had given birth to a baby who had developed painful convulsions which made her reject a God who would make innocent babies suffer. Now she realised that the baby’s suffering was sourced in some other life.]
What is karma?
Jesus Christ put it pithily, ‘As you sow, so you reap.’ The law of karma says that every action, mental, verbal or physical, has a consequence. None of us, no matter how rich, powerful or influential, can avoid facing these consequences. Our personality, looks, our parents, religion and country we are born into are all determined by the consequences of some past-life karma. Karma, therefore, goes hand-in hand with reincarnation. The karmic process Since our thoughts create our lives, therefore karma begins with thoughts. Good thoughts generate good karma while negative thoughts reap bad karma. Even more subtly, karma is determined by our motivation.
A woman patient of asthma went for a retreat conducted by the Oneness University. There she saw a vivid image of a past life in which she was born in a farmer’s family and had ridden a bullock relentlessly, whipping it cruelly until it had got breathless. She had pursued this activity for five years. This karma manifested in severe asthma that caused her to get breathless. She was healed only after she fed grass to a cow for six months and asked it for forgiveness. We have a choice Although we cannot change the consequences of our past actions, we can always choose our response to these events. A woman’s horoscope indicated that her relationship with her mother-in-law would be so bad that one or the other would commit suicide. But by using the spiritual tools of self-restraint and acceptance, she fielded the situation skilfully and today her mother-in-law has a deep affection and respect for her.
Writes Dada Vaswani, ‘We are free agents. We are free to choose between the two alternatives of good and evil, at every step, every turn of life.’ He adds, ‘The doctrine of karma is the best motivation we can have for right thinking, right action and right living.’ Proof of karma The innumerable examples of near-death experiences tell us that life after death exists. Dr Brian Weiss writes regularly about people who come to him for therapy through past life regression. They regress to the past life where the seeds of a particular karma was sown and see for themselves what they had done to invite the negative pattern in their current life. Mostly the problem gets resolved on identifying the root cause, and taking measures to heal it. Releasing bad karma According to Weiss, we take birth again and again with the same set of people in order to heal the relationships and achieve harmony. Writes Deepa Kodikal in her book, Teachings of the Inner Light, ‘This blow-for-blow relationship will continue, birth after birth, until at least one of us understands the Law of Karma. Finally, one day, wisdom will dawn: Do unto others, as ye would have them do unto you.” Spiritual and motivational trainer, Prem Nirmal, says, “Expose your karmas to the public gaze to void them! If you do not want the results of your good karmas, announce them to the public. If you do not want the harvest of bad karma, confess them openly with honesty and sincerity. Earn good karma by facing the consequences of your past actions bravely.” Eventually, we will reach a stage when we want out of all karma, good or bad. Says Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, ‘For a person who wants to transcend duality, and become one with the Creator, good karma is as useless as bad. It is a barrier, a burden.’ The Bhagavad Gita has been advocating nishkaama karma, desireless action, for thousands of years: Your choice is in action only, never in the result thereof. Do not be the author of the result of action. Let your attachment not be to inaction.(Chapter II, Verse 47) The end game In surrender, the deed is done without any emotional impetus – no desire, no motivation, no feeling is attached to it – the act is pure and therefore devoid of karma. Then, we enter into the last phase of the Lord’s lila – enlightenment. Karma then, is the agency, along with maya, which keeps us peddling on the cycle of birth and death. And through her carrots and sticks we slowly work our way out of her clutches. What a game!
December 2006 https://www.lifepositive.com/the-perfect-justice-of-karma/
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