‘Not Knowing about the Law of Karma’ is not an Excuse

You know one unique thing about this law, it is applicable to the person even if one is not aware of it…This is very well explained in the book ‘Theory of Karma’ written by Indian writer Mr. H. Thakkar. Let me quote some important points from there.

Suppose an Indian goes to America and starts driving the car on the left side of the road without putting on a safety belt, traffic police will fine him in dollars. If Indian argues that he was ignorant of this law, (In India there is right hand side driving and it is not compulsory to put on seat belt.) you think an Indian will be excused?

Not at all, in fact police will force him to pay the fine on the spot and will ask him to study the law at his convenience. Let us take other example, if an American goes to India and moves with a gun without license, he will be arrested by a police. His argument that in America no license is necessary for having a gun will not be accepted.

In short if a man puts his hand in fire innocently or through ignorance, even then the fire will burn his hand invariably.

If we want to stay and live in America, India, England or anywhere, we are expected to know the laws and rules of those countries. Similarly, if we want to live happily anywhere in this world, we must know the Law of Karma under which the whole universe is governed.

So let us study this law in detail in out future blogs…with many more examples….

Keep reading our following upcomming interesting articles in this blog:

1. What is Willful action (Kriyaman karma)?
2. What is Accumulated account (Sanchit Karma)?
3. What is destined karma (Prarabdha karma)?

Examples of Law of Karma

In some of the more recent blogs we spoke about destiny, types of karma and law of Karma….In today’s blog, we’ll see some examples of give and take account. Being an accountant by profession I am tempted to give the example in accounting language as this way we can understand this concept in depth.

When one does an action an account is created and if one receives equal return of that action then the account is settled. For example, Amelia borrows a large sum of money from her friend Brian and in subsequent years she pays off this debt. Then the account is settled.

But suppose Amelia cannot pay this money back to Brian and dies before she could generate the amount. The account still has to be settled, so it is here that the Law of Karma becomes effective. She would have to settle this account in the subsequent birth or births. Let us consider different ways she can pay off this debt:

Scenario 1 – Now in this new birth suppose Amelia has money, she may feel like gifting something as expensive as her debt. She may decide to gift, e.g. a branded car to Brian.

Or

Amelia for no apparent reason may uncharacteristically allow herself to be cheated by Brian to the tune of the same amount she owed him.

Scenario 2 – Now what if in this new birth Amelia is again poor and has no money to return to Brian…?

In such a case, whenever Brian meets her in this lifetime, there is no conscious recollection of the account needing to be settled, but deep down his subconscious mind is aware of it due to an impression of the debt in his give and take account center. So now Brian may feel inexplicable animosity towards Amelia, and may cause her some amount of pain in some form. We all have experienced this kind of feeling haven’t we, that many a time we generate unusual dislike or animosity in a particular person for no apparent reason.

But the point here is what could be the way out for Amelia in this situation, so that she doesn’t spend lifetimes returning the debt to Brian or experiencing the corresponding amount of pain from him?

Well, Amelia could start spiritual practice. Spiritual practice means sincere efforts done consistently on a daily basis to develop divine qualities, to live a righteous life and achieve everlasting happiness or Bliss. In one of our subsequent blogs we will explain in more detail what spiritual practice is. But here, we can just mention that, through spiritual practice, one’s spiritual energy is augmented.

So now energy generated through such spiritual practice can be utilized towards nullifying the give and take account with the person. Meaning, if Amelia were to start spiritual practice, then Brian could possibly find himself winning a lottery of some sort or may be getting an unusual promotion and thus a salary raise corresponding to the amount which Amelia owes him.

So we see how Spirituality can be useful to even those of us who have absolutely no spiritual aspirations what so ever and only wish to be immersed in worldly pursuits. Even for those worldly relations to be fruitful they need to be insulated from destiny.

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Law of Karma and the Give-And-Take Account

Today we have many books, websites which give vast explanations about the Law of Karma. I remember reading a book ‘Theory of Karma’ written by Mr. Hirabhai Thakkar, an Indian writer. In this book, he writes, the way some law or rule is very essential for smooth functioning of an organization, a company or country, similarly this infinite Universe is also governed by Law of Karma.

Saint Goswami Tulsidasji in His Ramayana (Holy text which is translated in simple easy to understand language) has also mentioned the above fact and states that a fundamental principle of this law is ‘As you sow, so shall you reap’. This is stated in the ‘Bible’ too. This shows the universality of the Law of Karma. Some interesting features of this law are:

• The Law of Karma is eternal – It is there since the beginning of the Universe and it will prevail till the end of the Universe.
• The Law of Karma is Universal – It is applicable to all in this Universe. That is for all people, living creatures, countries and at all times, past, present and future…
• The Law of Karma is totally perfect and without exception – There has not been a single amendment in the law up until now since time immemorial. Nobody can escape the canons of this law.

This reminds me of my accounting classes in college days…. Yes, no jokes… In different words, this Law is also termed as ‘Give and take account’. The way a balance sheet will not tally unless we have not squared all the accounts similarly our soul’s journey will not settle unless we nullify all our accounts.

Are you aware that throughout our lives we are either settling an old account or creating a new one? If the account cannot be settled in this birth it is carried over to the next. We are not consciously aware of the give-and-take accounts generated in our previous births.

Another astonishing fact about this is the status of the relationship and the sex of the individual may change with subsequent births. Meaning, a father of a person in one birth can be born as a daughter of the same individual in the next. At this point I recollect reading something similar in the famous book ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ written by H. H. Swami Paramhansa Yogananda.

In the next blog we will see examples pertaining to the above statement….

Law of Karma

One of our far relations was very rich. One day due to some family function I visited their house with my parents. I believe I was just ten years old then. At that time I came to know that they had this only one son namely Cliff, but who was blind. When I first met Cliff I found that he was wearing very expensive branded clothes and was having all sorts of comforts. He used to have all sorts of rich food containing dry fruits, used to travel in Mercedes Benz car which was specially purchased for him. His room was very big, air conditioned and he had a big playground dedicated to him alone with lots of latest toys and games. I remember that I told my mum, “How sad, Cliff has almost everything every one would dream of but he cannot enjoy so many aspects of it.”

Today while crossing the road saw one lady was helping her blind child and all memories of Cliff reappeared to me.

While walking I was pondering deeply as to how come Cliff, though blind, was having such a lavish life which some other children with could not even dream of. Today got the insight that it is due to ‘Law of Karma’. Many events in our lives are destined, beginning with our birth and the family that we are born into. One is born into a family, where conditions are conducive to undergo one’s destiny and where one has significant give-and-take account with each member of the family.

Isn’t it interesting to note that according to the law of Karma,

• Every positive deed generates a ‘merit’
• While every negative deed generates a ‘demerit’ or a sin.

Subsequently one has to reap the results of one’s actions. Whenever one does a good deed to others, it is bound to give a positive return (in the form of some happiness – the way Cliff was experiencing a lavish life style), apart from a simple thank you from that person!

But whenever one inflicts harm, it is bound to give negative return in the form of sorrow (like Cliff’s parents who in spite of their wealth had only the one son who was blind). This negative return cannot be undone by a simple ‘Sorry’!

The law of Karma is infallible. It is something like Newton’s third law of motion, which states, ‘For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction’.

Please share whether you have experienced the Law of Karma in some form.

We will go into more detail about this concept in our subsequent blogs and will see various examples which will open up a new dimension of Spirituality to us…

Types of Destiny

A few months ago, my friend Brenda was traveling by a car. She was sitting on the back seat and her daughter was sitting in front. After some time her daughter started feeling sleepy and so she requested her mother to change the seat so she can sleep in the car on the back seat. They halted the car and changed their seats. After changing the seat within ten minutes they were hit by big truck and my friend and her husband who was driving the car, suffered multiple injury and fracture. They are still in bad shape, recovering and can not walk. The wreckage of the car was so bad that it would easily tell the condition of the passengers. But their daughter who was sleeping at the back did not even suffer a scratch.

After hearing this news I was wondering and asked myself how is it that their daughter was saved? and that Brenda had to undergo this accident.

I suppose that although we may not always realize it, various types of events in our lives occur due to destiny. According to spiritual science, all such destined incidents can be divided into three types.

• Mild Destiny
• Moderate Destiny
• Severe Destiny

Mild Destiny: On average many of us have to go through this type of destiny. For example, minor illnesses like getting a frequent cold or cough. Another example would be that a marriage is arranged only after efforts that are above average. I realized one example of mild destiny would be of my brother Nelson who despite good qualifications and nearly twenty years of experience in a particular field presently cannot get a suitable job. He is trying to change his job but without any luck.

Moderate Destiny: Examples of this type could be big financial losses, marital problems, inability to have children etc. Taking my own example – I am married for the last twelve years and still don’t have children. We went to many doctors, got all our tests done. All the tests are normal. Each doctor would always have a perplexed look while going through our reports as he would not know the reason for inability to conceive a child when we both are in sound health.

Severe Destiny: Destiny of this type are major accidents, untimely death in childhood, impossibility of getting married despite tremendous efforts, etc. Most of these types of destiny cannot be avoided.

Well through this I received an answer to my inner query about Brenda’s difficult injuries and her daughter’s well-being. It was simply in Brenda’s destiny to suffer major physical setback.

In some of our subsequent posts we will explore what determines the severity of our destiny, and whether we can do anything to overcome destiny.

Basics of Destiny and Free Will

Quite often when something goes wrong in one’s life, we hear people saying that it is destiny and so one has to go through it. But what is this destiny all about? Well destiny is like a ubiquitous cloud over our lives. It heavily influences the events in our lives, such as:

• The decisions we make.
• Who we spend our lives with.
• All major events in our life such as birth, marriage, major illnesses, accidents and death

To understand the concept of destiny we need to understand what willful action is. Willful action is that portion of our life which we do have control over. Destiny is when we have no control over our life situations.

Lets us understand this with one example,

An example of willful action: Suppose there is a person who is drunk and has a badly maintained car. He decides to drive his car in a drunken state down a steep mountain side and he does so at high speed. If he were to at some point skid off the road down the mountain side, whose fault would it be? Would that be an accident caused by destiny or an accident caused by willful action?

Well, it is willful action as he could have chosen not to drink and drive. He could have ensured that his car was better serviced and could have driven slowly.

An example of a destined event: Take the case of another driver who is sober. He drives carefully and maintains his car in a perfect condition. He too drives down the same mountain side observing all precautions. All of a sudden a portion of the road collapses due to a landslide and he meets with an accident. In this case the person had no control over the landslide that occurred and hence this is a destined event.

As per the science of Spirituality today on an average 65% of our lives are ruled by destiny and 35% by willful action. But the good news is that we can overcome the 65% of our destiny, by using the 35% of our willful action to undertake the correct spiritual practice. So in short, destiny is spiritual in nature and can only be overcome with a spiritual remedy which is spiritual practice.

Keep watching to know other interesting facts about destiny:

• Types of destiny
• Karma (give and take account)

A Blog Exploring Destiny, Free will and The Law of Karma

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

It’s choice–not chance–that determines your destiny

It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped

Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice: It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.

These quotes are the expression of various individuals like us who look at destiny from their view point.

• The popular western view is that we are in control of our lives and everything that happens to us is as a result of our own choice.
• On the other hand the popular eastern view is that every thing that happens to us is not under our control and we are nothing but puppets in a preordained plan.

“In this blog we will explore destiny, karma and free will, and to what extent they govern our lives.”

The aim of this blog :

• This blog is for all those who wish to know what destiny really is and the role it plays in one’s life
• To analyze how the Law of Karma heavily influences destiny
• To understand the significance of free will to overcome destiny

This blog will include various topics such as :

• Basics of destiny, free will, law of karma
• Various relative terminologies
• Some real life examples
• Law of Karma – various philosophies
• Re-incarnation – spiritually explored, and more.

Stay tuned to explore more about your destiny and free will,under the influence of the Law of Karma !