What is Karma?

Karma is the Law of Cause and Effect working on objective and subjective levels. The difference between the known laws of physics and Karma is that Karma works on inner subjective realms as well. This is because we are all telepathically interconnected, part of One Life. My every action including feelings and thoughts will create ripples spreading throughout the whole manifestation. So if I create positive or negative vibration and emanate it, the universe will respond accordingly and return the fruits of my actions. The causes which I set in motion will be followed by their effects.

“Thus the law of Karma fulfils itself in all things, perfectly and without the possibility of evasion.” As you sow so you reap - nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from it; justice shall be upheld.


Why Karma works slowly rather than instantaneously?

“Progress does not come through the fear of the law only through the change of heart.”

If Karma would work very quickly we would be trained like a dog which gets a candy for a good stunt or a smack for a bad stunt. The fact that we do not know why bad things are happening to us makes us think, reflect upon our lives, searching for a deeper purpose and meaning. We have to ask ourselves who we are, and through the process of self-realisation detach from the phenomenal world and learn to act more in accordance with our true self.

The events of our life are trying to tell us something, they are trying to awake us. It is like an encrypted code for those who dare to know – for those who think with their own head and are able to decode the instructions from their Soul, until the day when they are ready to be one with the Soul.



Why don’t we remember our past lives?

We could not handle the memory of so many experiences. Only when we have soul consciousness then we have enough strength to face our numerous past experiences. Consciousness is energy. Having consciousness of many life spans awakens great energy. One has to be ready for this inflow of energy.

It is difficult to change our ways of living when we dwell in the past. Often, in order to move on, we require a new, fresh start. Every incarnation provides us with an opportunity to start again and do it right.

In each incarnation we develop some qualities but not all of them at the same time. Some aspects of our being are not apparent in each incarnation. In order that the development of a new quality in a particular incarnation is not disturbed the oblivion of the past is often required. For example: if in one life a person needs to learn how to be a true woman, it might not be desirable to remember previous incarnation in a male body. One cannot develop all qualities at the same time, especially in the early stages of human evolution. We are like actors, changing our roles through incarnations until we achieve full self-realisation and are able to be all at once – holding our developed abilities in perfect harmony.

A past life occurred in a particular age which was coloured by the mentality of that time. A strong remembrance of the past event could bring confusion and disturbance to one’s present consciousness because the present mind-set is a part of the contemporary mentality. Group and planetary mentality evolves and changes through time; hence every age has its own perception of reality.

The past is here in our body and soul, which is sufficient for the Law of Karma to work. We acquire the bodies which are the result of our karmic activities. Our body, with its strengths and weaknesses, limits us or helps us in our activities; it sets the frequency of our aura, which through the Law of Vibration attracts and creates the world around us, which we call ‘our life’. Some people do not accept the Karmic constrains and fight for their freedom against the odds – and they eventually succeed for every effort counts.

Technically we do not remember past lives because we have new physical, emotional and mental body in each incarnation and if we have not developed soul consciousness our physical memory cannot be easily restored in these new bodies.


Personal Karma depends on:

1. Unredeemed past actions
2. Aura’s vibration, feelings and thoughts
3. Desire, ambition and associations
4. Degree and type of self control
5. Mission for that particular incarnation
6. Group, National and Planetary Karma
7. Karmic help by Enlightened beings


Aura and the Law of Vibration

“To find perfection at any or all levels one must aspire to or manifest a corresponding condition in oneself.”

“Whatever kingdom of nature you injure, exploit or pervert you will at some time have to reconcile it with love and service, until you do that there will be hostility between you and them because your vibration strikes a discord with theirs “


Illness and suffering

All bad karma which happens to us can in the end teach us a lesson and turn into something good: “there is no evil, save that which man creates through his own lack of understanding.”

The main cause of illness is imbalance, which often can be cumulative with the sudden bad effects.

One can take a part of somebody else’s Karma, or take a part of the group Karma in order to help the progress of the group or the world.

The problems of ordinary life are often used by the Teachers on the Inner Planes in order to test the fitness of would be aspirants on the path of wisdom.


Sin and repentance

“Do not waste time and energy regretting the past”
One should relate to his past bad karma as mistakes or errors not as morbid sins.

The idea of sin from the Middle Ages was a disproportional concept of punishment and is still with us. The extreme idea of sin brings hysterical and paranoic fear, as well as strong dualistic perception of the world. But Karma is blind, it has no ideological presumptions – it does not see things as black and white, but perceives everything in a degree. Karma adds up all good and bad actions and finds the true measure of man.

One should try to correct his mistakes not just feel sorry.
“Penitence is not enough, should we not seek to bind up the wounds we have made, to mend that which we have broken?”


Transmutation

“A man does not change in a twinkling of an eye and become a saint in a day.”

By bringing our unconscious processes into the light of our Soul we can transmute lower vibrations or energies into higher. It is the lower vibrations (selfishness, lust, anger) that get us in trouble through the Law of Attraction.

Right causes produce right effects. If one just sits and waits that good things like love, enlightenment, riches, friendship come to him without making any or very little effort they might never come. But if one sets in motion right causes then according to the Law, the right effects will follow. One should not be lazy, for laziness never pays well.

Without willpower sensitive people with great ideals will fail to achieve their goals and will fall into depression, illness or self-abuse like alcohol, drugs or over-indulgent sex.

“Have you taken every lesson experience has brought you to heart and applied it?”

We are developing different aspects of our soul through the process of reincarnation. The whole incarnation can be polarised on the developing of one quality. Just as in polishing the diamond’s sides one by one until it is perfect, so the Soul is transmuting and awakening one by one of it’s infinite potentials until the moment when in one incarnation all Soul’s work can be put together.

If I assume that I am a superman who can indulge in various extremes like alcoholism, drugs, too much sex etc., I might continue to do this seemingly undamaged but at one point the body will collapse just like a house which was eroded slowly. And then it might take ages to rebuild it, attributed with great suffering.

Through the process of reincarnation we are adjusting the karmic imbalance.
“Action will cause reaction at all levels. Man upon the physical plane will only cease to suffer from these repercussions when the mystery of how to balance the pairs of opposites is better understood. It is through man’s emotions that the powers of distraction can most easily control him. Through the fatal lack of balance one becomes an easy pray to obsession and sometimes that what people ‘still’ call insane.”

Suffering can be a part of the growth, the way we learn, especially if we try to detach from it.

Sometimes we pass through the crisis of spiritual transformation. It can last whole life, hence that life might not be a very happy one, yet on the long run it will reward us with great strength if we do not give up.

Desire for reward can be the cause of bad karma. We cannot approach anything as black and white; hence a denial of our desire for reward is in fact a very desire for it. The point is that personal reward should not be the main motivator.

All problems will return until we solve them, there is no evasion. If one commits suicide or avoids responsibility, the same problem will come back in another time or incarnation with even greater difficulty and complexity.

Love or romantic trouble could be one of the most powerful karmic cleansings, because it touches us very deeply.

Love has the power to transform all bad karma, without it everything is in vain.


Guardians on the threshold

Whenever a great power or energy works through us, it brings on the stage all opposing forces either from within or without. Whenever we are at our peak, the guardians on the threshold are awaken to stop us advance until we face our past creations, transmute them and balance the karma. The guardians on the threshold are not just our personal creations, they can be group and planetary forces to which, in one way or another, we contributed in the past and now they oppose our evolution.

Every intense effort in one direction ever arouses a compensating opposition – the Law of Equilibrium.


Group and National karma

“Thus people are born into the families from whom they can inherit the specific weaknesses which they have themselves created by past errors. “

“Man ever gets the parents he deserves or need.”

Though many people dream about their twin soul, the twin soul idea is an idealisation of a romantic partner which is a reflection of a spiritual search for the perfection of one’s own soul.

There are karmic obligations towards a nation of birth. Nations are spiritual entities, and we are like cells in their bodies. So we form a relationship, draw our power from them and hopefully contribute something back.

Many upright men were blinded and confused by the mental atmosphere of the age in which they lived. This was a cause of many karmic mistakes which people have to repay later. Example: Inquisition and witch-hunt in the Middle Ages.

If people would know how much mistakes which are made in the position of power cost, they would never desire the power as they unfortunately do. The reason behind the desire for power is the need for self-expression, for power guarantees the ability to exercise one’s will. But one must care about self-expression of others too, for we are all one.


Being above Karma

How can somebody be above Karma if karma works everywhere? We have to take expression ‘being above Karma’ in relative terms. It means being rooted in Spirit so that the laws which rules the material realms of duality which are physical, astral and lower mental plane do not infringe our spiritual will.

In the course of evolution our focus of consciousness will move from the lower planes to higher ones and as it ascends we will liberate ourselves from the karma of the lower planes.

Pure Reason is Pure Love. One who is rooted in pure reason demonstrates pure love and is beyond Karma.



Conclusion

By positive action we create positive effects. Paying off bad karma is better by doing good deeds and being useful to humanity, than waiting that suffering passes. We should treat our bad past as mistakes or errors not as sins, with a determination not to repeat them.

If all karma is contained in my body, and I can not escape from myself, then the only way out is through self-understanding: Know Thyself - the only true path of spiritual liberation and enlightenment.

Do always things which are useful, true and beautiful.
“Nothing is denied to you but what you deny to yourself. Do you desire friends and lovers, then give friendship and love, and they will crowd around you. Give service and you will be served; heal others and your own diseases will be cured. If anything ever seems to be denied you, give of that thing freely and eventually through giving, you will receive. If the world appears to ill treat you, look well, my son, into your own heart; you will surely find hidden therein something that is inimical to the world.”



Christian Bodhi, March 2002

All quotes are from a magnificent book The Wheel of Rebirth by H.K. Challoner