Karma:
The sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence is viewed as deciding their fates in future existences.
Good or bad luck is viewed as resulting from one’s actions.
For as long as I can remember I had been a believer in Karma. I grew up reading about it, hearing about it being talked about at home, discussed among friends and strangers alike. Karma meant ‘you would get your due when the time was right’ and/or ‘what you did came back to you’.
Karma was supposed to be cool that way.
So I believed. I waited and did the best I could while I did. I waited. The cows came home, many times over and I was still waiting, ‘to get my due’.
As I waited and did the right things, unpleasant things happened to me and kept happening. People who were family and friends, people who were supposed to have my back kept stabbing it. People who I wished well for, wished ill for me. People whom I helped out, hurt me.
This happened with clockwork regularity, on repeat mode. Even as I waited for ‘Karma to give me my due’.
By now, I had started getting impatient and feeling pretty foolish too, with this concept of Karma. While I waited I began to realize a few things;
Believing in Karma was like hiring someone to do your dirty work for you:
Yes, that is how it had begun to feel. You waiting patiently, all safe and clean, while you kept prodding Karma to get back on your behalf. Not cool at all!
Believing in Karma is silent vengeance:
You may think you are noble when you say ‘I forgive and forget’, and don’t believe in revenge. But if you are waiting for Karma to settle scores for you, there is vendetta brewing somewhere inside.
Karma keeps you connected:
When I am done with someone, I am truly done with someone. That person ceases to exist for me. I realized that Karma kept me connected to people I don’t like or want to be part of my life, as they continued to be in my thoughts what with me wondering if and when Karma had got back at them.
What do I think of people who believe in Karma?
Everyone is welcome to have their beliefs. I hope they get to keep their faith.
I know people for whom ‘conscience’ is an alien concept. People who use everything, from death to disease, even their children, to get their way and move forward. Who think nothing of coveting what is someone else’s and destroying something beautiful. Whose only aim in life is to cause and spread unhappiness. And they sleep well despite it all, justifying their wrongs as rights.
Thinking, dissecting, and weighing the pros and cons of Karma has led me to believe that it is just a way of keeping humans in check. Just so that we think many times over before we choose to react ‘harshly’.
I don’t know if Karma exists or doesn’t. What I do know is that it just doesn’t exist for me.
I now believe in reacting at the moment, so people get what they give me. I believe in living for the moment. I am much happier this way.
My Mom believes in and keeps reminding me of a previous life and an afterlife. With all due respect, I have trouble remembering what I did last week, so obviously the concept of what I may or may not have done in my past life to go through all that I am going through in this life is redundant for me.
As for collecting brownie points for my next life? Oh please!
I don’t believe in after life. But I feel if you do good , you will get good in return, not necessarily from the same person or source but somewhere. But yes, after reading this post , I also think you make a valid point that the reasons / intentions behind our good actions should not be because you want to attract goodness in your life or with some expectations. You do good because you want to and if you don’t think the person who hurt you needs to be rewarded with goodness in return, show them their rightful position.