Karma

(Excerpt from "From India to the Truth")

If there is one spiritual law that is well-known to the Orientalf race - and especially the Indian people - it is the Law of Karma! The word "karma" has its roots in Sanskrit dating back thousands of years, and is today generally understood as one's destiny being determined by one's prior actions. Its literal meaning, however, is supposed to be "action", i.e. everything that is willed by the individual, his thoughts, words and deeds.

"Karma" was not invented by a few clever philosophers in order to explain the presence of both suffering and blessing among the diverse races of human beings on earth as many seem to think but, as with all spiritual knowledge, it was given to humanity at their former peak of spiritual development.

In India, for instance, this knowledge was a gift from the Light to those who had reached that stage of development whereby they became fully prepared to learn about the concepts of reciprocal action, rebirth and reincarnation. Today we are blessed to receive this knowledge from our ancestors so that we may make use of it for our own development.

All spiritual knowledge can only be acquired by slow development towards maturation. To acquire it one has to strive for it ardently. It does not simply fall into one's lap! It was through this earnest striving of the Indian people at that time that the road to the knowledge of karma was finally opened.

After all, the Law of Karma stipulates: "as you sow, so you reap", and conversely, "you cannot reap what you have not already sown". Unless people sow seeds of humility and earnestness in the search for Truth they will never find it. Consequently the Indian people as a whole could have only been granted this sacred knowledge if they had previously striven after it and had been found worthy of it.

Unfortunately, as time went on, they did not keep pace with the prerequisite spiritual development for attaining further enlightenment. Thus they stagnated in a limited knowledge of the Law of Karma and of the existence of the gods and goddesses, believing that they had already attained the highest. They formed their culture and religion according to these beliefs and did not proceed any further. Consequently distortions and errors crept into the originally pure beliefs, and one now has to wade through thousands of pages of ancient Vedic texts, sifting carefully in order to find the original grains of Truth!

The Law of Karma is a Law of Nature, a Law that our wonderful Creator has built into the working of His Creation. It is the Law of Cause and Effect, which ensures that nothing we do is without life and effect in the great World of Creation. It is also the Law of Balance and Harmony, the Law of Equilibrium, which prevents anyone from abusing his rights and duties as a creature in Creation. This means that the Law of Karma restores the balance where human beings, through their free will, have tipped the scales in favour of their own selfish desires. This happens through the returns (or the fruits) that they receive as a result of exercising their free will.

When we use the word "Law", we should not think in terms of earthly laws that are rigid and imperfect in their nature, which can also be bent and twisted in order to achieve some dubious goal. It is unfortunate that in today's world the word "law" portends a gloomy picture of rigid and dogmatic rules under which all human beings generally suffer.

But the Laws of Nature are perfect and filled with living life! In their unfathomable perfection, they take care of us so well that if we were able to recognise this process, we would completely lose our self-centredness and strive to live according to these Laws. Since the Laws of Nature were ordained by the Creator, they can also be referred to as the Eternal Laws of God. For us, therefore, these Laws are everything, as they constitute God's Sacred Will for all of Creation. Each and every one of us came into existence only through the outworking of these Laws. Hence, in order to survive in Creation, we must know what they are and how to live according to them.

Everything that one needs for one's spiritual development is contained in the Law of Karma. Surely this is not so difficult to see!

A seed of love that is sown will always bring forth a harvest of love. In a similar manner, hatred will only breed hatred and, likewise, with envy, avarice, lust etc. From time immemorial, great thinkers and philosophers have stated that we must do unto others as we would want others to do unto us. Already we know exactly how we should live according to this Law: by practising true love for all of God's creatures.

Through the operation of the Law of Karma, we can bring either happiness or unhappiness to ourselves and thereby weave the tapestry of our destiny in Creation. The Creator has given us the opportunity to make use of everything in Creation for whatever purpose we choose in the "free will". He Himself need not intervene in any situation, because He simply allows this Law to operate and run its course. In exactly the same manner as all the laws of physics and chemistry work absolutely uninfluenced in their unchangeable nature, for all the laws of physics, chemistry and biology are in reality a mere part of the Eternal Laws of Nature!

However, it is imperative for us to correctly recognise the true nature of the Law of Karma so that we do not become far too "rigid" in our striving to live according to this Law. When we see that a person is enjoying good earthly circumstances, we infer that it is because he has once performed good deeds in the past, perhaps even in a previous earth-life. Similarly if he is not so privileged in this life, we immediately state that this is because he has done something wrong beforehand. While these statements are fundamentally true, there is always the danger of a one-sided interpretation. Such one-sidedness usually occurs when we try to define the good or bad deeds that lead to good or bad karma and attempt to press them into laws or rituals.

Obeying the traditions or customs as well as following the various rites and rituals prescribed in scriptural texts do not necessarily (or even usually) bring about good karma. Unfortunately many families impose such a narrow-minded interpretation of the Law of Karma on their children. They emphasise that only adherence to the religious or family way of doing things will result in good karma in either this life or the next.

We should be able to recognise the fallacy that is contained in this. Only deeds that are filled with genuine inner life, which are performed out of genuine love for God and His Creation, will bring about good karma. Unlike mundane traditions and customs, God's Laws are filled with vibrant life and animating power, and he who lives in these Laws continuously experiences this fact. On the other hand, rituals, customs and traditions are completely dead as they only give an illusion of "living aright" without at the same time leading anyone to the true recognition of God's Perfection.

To do good deeds simply means: to help one another in the truest spiritual sense, to sow helping seeds of love wherever there is a need. To selflessly give to all those who cross one's path, from out of the bounty that one has been given. This does not really refer to earthly comforts or providing for another person materially or emotionally. At times, even harsh severity can be a great help to those who refuse to exert themselves in any way.

Selflessness is absolutely important when we speak of "good deeds", for it avails a person nothing if he gives to the needy with a calculating mind, expecting to receive something in return in one form or another. Good deeds are therefore pure, crystal-clear and sincere. Bereft of the cleverly calculating intellect that only wants to dictate how much it will help another person in proportion to how much will be received in return.

No good deeds are committed with such cleverly calculating intentions. Therefore any outwardly good deeds that are performed by such individuals will simply not bring about the harvest of blessing that they expect. At most they may only obtain a rise in status and reputation, since they did help after all - but it can never bring spiritual reward, i.e. that which will greatly help their soul ascend.

They may, however, even reap a harvest of suffering, depending on how much they allowed the clever intellect to sully their perhaps originally pure intentions! Hence a grave warning is contained in this for those of us who are striving to find the right way, that we should pay heed to the nature of our thoughts and what they drive us to do in our desire to help our fellowmen.

As we delve deeply into the outworking of the Law of Karma, we immediately recognise another process operating therein - rebirth of the soul! The soul strives for maturation in each life on earth, where it may incarnate either to learn new spiritual lessons or to cast off karmaic burdens from former lives - or more often than not, even both! This is all part of the cycle of development towards spiritual perfection. This slow process of maturation is guided by the Law of Karma. Each soul must learn how to live in Creation through the process of sowing seeds and reaping the corresponding harvest. If it keeps its volition pure, it will eventually attain perfection and freedom from the cycle of rebirth, which is then the longed-for "eternal salvation"!

Therefore the path to the Light is already clearly shown to us: "Love thy neighbour as thyself!", which is the fundamental essence of Christ's Message to all mankind. Because whatever we do for our fellowmen, in the end we really only do for ourselves. It may be just the smallest thing, perhaps something as simple as a heart-warming smile or a few words of empathy, but if it is done out of a genuine inner love, it is bound to bring a harvest of blessing. Sowing seeds of love and goodwill is therefore not limited only to those people who have financial means, because in reality every person has something to give to others from out of his own inner self. And of course if only there were many people with such a volition, only peace, harmony and love would abound in this world.

Why are people then struggling so hard to find the way out of their problems today, when the way has already been shown to us for thousands of years by this simple Law of Karma which is proclaimed by the Bhagavad Gita, the Qur'an and the Word of Jesus? Are we so indolent in spirit that we refuse to acknowledge the Truth? Is the human intellect, which strives mainly after material things and is usually regarded as the faculty of perfect reasoning, so rigid that the pure logic of the Law of Karma is unable to penetrate to it?

The answer to this may also well lie in the many misconceptions of karma that are being spread by various schools of thought. Foremost among these are the distortions of the concept of rebirth. In many branches of Oriental philosophy, transmigration of the species has been substituted for reincarnation. In the doctrine of transmigration, the soul of the human being is assumed to be able to incarnate in the bodies of different species according to its karma.

According to this line of reasoning, the soul, now a man today, may be a horse tomorrow or even a frog! This is all dependent on his karma of course. There are some groups that take this even further, believing that the soul can also return as an inanimate object, for instance, as a plant or a rock.

But it is absolutely impossible for a human being - who bears the gift of a highly-developed intellect, the gift of being able to think, speak and act and above all the ability to perceive intuitively in freely making conscious decisions - to return to the earth as an animal, as the animal's experiences are completely different from those of man, and cannot serve to help him spiritually advance in even the slightest possible way. Still less possible is it then for him to return as an object without any inner motivating life!

What use would there be in a man returning in his next life as an animal that is unable to intuitively perceive in a manner which only a human being is capable of? He would not be able to advance spiritually for he could not understand the concepts of purity, morality, love, and above all, service to God, if he were in a physical body that lacked such abilities. True knowledge and conviction cannot be gained as an animal. An animal lives within its own boundaries and can never advance to those spiritual levels that only a human being can attain.

Both species bear different kinds of motivating cores or life-forces within them. The core of the human being is spiritual, while that of the animal is animistic. They are of completely different species which are unable to intermingle, even during the process of incarnation.

We already mentioned before that the spirit-core bears both the free will and the intuition. Now we should note that the animal is only able to react to the impulses generated by the animistic-core, without any free will of its own. That is to say, the animistic-core only generates "impulse", it has no free will. This animal impulse is insufficient for attaining the higher, more conscious recognitions. Only the intuitive faculty of the human spirit possesses this ability.

There is no point in a human being - even one who has sunk to the lowest levels possible - ever returning as an animal, because that would result in an imperfection in the natural happening, an imperfection which cannot exist in the outworking of God's Laws. This imperfection is already explained by the fact that a human spirit incarnated among animals could never come to a recognition of the wrong-doing that forced him into such circumstances in the first place. The intelligence and inner consciousness for that are lacking!

But even trying to call such a picture to life must make many feel uneasy about the concept of transmigration. For the simple reason that all human beings, who can think clearly for themselves, will intuitively perceive the distance and the natural separation existing between them and the animal kingdom. No intermingling is possible even at the time of birth!

A human being can return only as a human being and an animal only as an animal. Therefore we should be able to admit that any belief in transmigration, which has obviously emerged from a one-sided interpretation of the Law of Karma, must be wrong!

Another wrong concept is the question of whether a person's karma can be taken away from him by another. Self-proclaimed avatars, or Divine Incarnations as they like to call themselves, are supposedly able to absorb part or all of another person's karma. Or as it is beautifully put, they are able to "bear the karma of others for their sakes". This misconception is far more dangerous than that of transmigration for, as a result, many are deluded into thinking that they need not worry about their karma if only they can successfully petition such a person to take it away from them! There is no inner desire to work on oneself in order to eliminate the root cause of all the bad karma they keep incurring; they would much rather it be taken away from them without any personal effort on their part.

In any case, it is absolutely impossible for any person, including an Incarnation of God Himself, to take away the karma of another individual. Since we stipulate that God is Perfect and that He cannot act against His own Laws, which He has ordained as the Laws of Nature, He cannot also go against this supreme Law of Karma.

God is One with His Laws. How can He circumvent His Laws when they come from Him? When they are a Part of Him, when indeed He is the Living Law? We should reflect on these questions more closely, for they hold the key to all understanding of Truth.

Perfection has absolutely no need of change!

The Law of Karma does not therefore permit one person to take over the karma of another, because the Law states in no uncertain terms: "As you sow, so you reap, and you cannot reap what you have not already sown!" How then can a so-called Avatar reap what he has not sown, and how can a mere human spirit not reap what he has sown? And if an "Avatar" does proclaim that he is able to take upon himself another person's karma, then one would certainly have to call his identity into question!

This misconception has also permeated Christianity. The Bible declares the Truth of Karma, when it states that we reap what we sow. However, Christianity does not recognise that this is an eternal unchangeable Law, and hence many Christians do not recognise the Law of Karma and, associated therewith, the truth of reincarnation. This is supported by the primary Christian belief that Christ has taken away all need to reap the fruits of one's deeds through His Death on the Cross, even though He Himself taught no such thing. Unfortunately beliefs like these only lead to a false sense of security, i.e. that such believers will enter Heaven once they have passed on so long as they believe in Him and His Sacrificial Death.

Strangely enough, many Hindus already shy away in horror from such misconceptions, and yet they themselves permit so-called Hindu Avatars to promulgate essentially the same doctrine! It is a simple matter of identifying any one of these numerous Avatars and examining his teachings to see whether it contains similar thoughts. There are many such Avatars who seem to believe that they can easily take away the karma of their followers. But this is simply not possible as it would mean that they would be acting against the Law of Karma, which declares that we can only reap what we have sown and that not even the smallest amount of karma can be taken away from us. The only way to atone for our karma is to experience it to the fullest!

The occurrence of scientifically undisputed healings and miracles is not proof that karma can be taken away or "dissolved" by a healer or miracle-worker. These events take place through the Laws of Creation, but they do not circumvent the Laws. For instance, when a person is cured by a healer, this does not mean that his disease has been "taken away". In reality, the disease has only been accelerated through the gift that the healer possesses (see the essay: "Miracles").

The karma works itself out far more quickly than usual, whereas it might otherwise have taken months, or perhaps years, to come to an end. Sometimes not even in the present life, but only in the next! But a true healer is able - through his strong connection with the Love of God - to substantially speed up the process.

Think of a catalyst in chemistry, which accelerates or facilitates certain chemical reactions that otherwise take a long time. The healer is very much like a catalyst who, with his spiritual gifts, is able to accelerate the karma of those who come to him for healing.

The only condition is that those who approach him must have fully recognised their personal faults and be willing to cast them aside and work earnestly on themselves in order to become spiritually mature. Only then is the soil prepared within these ailing persons for the healing or the miracle. Even the healer has his own karma to deal with which he, with his own gifts, may be unable to "catalyse" in this manner.

There is never a question of a circumvention of Divine Laws in all these events. When launching a rocket we do not overthrow the law of gravity, but we work within the framework of this law by providing the additional thrust that works in the opposite direction to that of gravity. But the law itself is never annulled.

If we earnestly try to put aside all these false conceptions, we will arrive very quickly at the Truth, and we will see the correct operation of the Law of Karma in all its perfection and magnitude. For whether it is called the Law of Karma, the Law of Reciprocal Action, the Law of Sowing and Reaping, the Law of Justice etc., all human beings have to submit to this one Law, whether they wish to believe in it or not. No distinction is made, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, Christian, Muslim, Jew or... atheist!