Your Karmic Account

In a small village once, everyone was indebted, materially. Its people earned their livelihoods based on local trade. The farmer would buy on credit and pay the supplier upon the harvest, the supplier would source on credit and clear his dues when he got his payment, and so on. Everyone owed someone, basically.

There was a hotel in that village, more like a motel. One day, a rich merchant from a nearby town visited them. He thought of staying the night there. He went to the hotel and insisted on seeing the room before checking in. The manager agreed and informed him that he would require a security deposit of one hundred dollars. And that, if he chose not to take the room, his deposit would be returned. The merchant saw no harm in this and put a hundred-dollar bill on the counter. The manager called a bell boy to show a room on the top floor to the gentleman.

Barely had they started moving towards the room when the manager took the bill and ran out of the hotel. He went to the nearby convenience store and paid his outstanding dues of one hundred dollars and returned to the hotel.

Further, the store owner rushed to the farmer and cleared his debt of the same amount. The farmer owed money to a private banker, so without ado, he ran to the lender and paid back his long-overdue loan. The lender owed a prostitute and he quickly got rid of his debt by forwarding the payment. The prostitute, in turn, owed the hotel for she had once used a room for her trade. To protect her reputation, she ran to the hotel, paid the manager, thanked him, and went on her way.

By that time, the merchant came down and told him the room was not up to standard. The manager handed back the hundred-dollar bill and the merchant left.

No one pocketed anything but the whole village became debt-free. Everyone was relieved of their stress, loans, and debts.

Similarly, in the whole scheme of things, in the play of nature, the bottom line does not change, the grand total remains the same regardless of the volume and nature of individual transactions.

If you have accumulated a certain debt, it is you alone who has to pay it back. That’s your karmic account. Let us say, a certain bank manager is your best friend and you need chips. You cannot approach him with the argument that he has millions in his bank and therefore he should lend you some money, from someone’s account, from anyone’s account. Even if he wants to, he cannot do it.

Nature cannot give you what you have not earned just like it cannot take away from you what is rightfully parked in your karmic account. It is impartial. You need to deposit before you can withdraw. Your actions and what you do with your life are entirely your own responsibility. Each individual has a separate karmic account, it is immaculately maintained, and there are no mistakes there. If you give someone grief because that is what they give you, it does not cancel out your transaction. You both remain accountable for your actions on an individual basis.

The Law of Attraction and the Law of Karma may well operate in tandem, but it is possible for one to do bad karma yet still excel at attracting good things. The reverse is also true — one may be a wonderful person and may still attract terrible things in life. Good or bad, that does not absolve him of his karmic debt, it does not get written off. It is dealt with separately by Nature. It is for this reason that sometimes someone whom you may call bad continues to flourish till their last breath. They can attract their desired things in life.

Good karma may or may not give you success as you define it, it may not give you a life of material richness and glamour, but, without fail, it will certainly reward you with peace and contentment. In fact, you can only do good karma when you are at peace within.

If you are happy inside, you will not hurt anyone with your words or gestures, you will only see the beauty in everything and you will only melt their hearts doing even more good karma. If you are bitter inside, if you are angry, you will find it increasingly hard to heal yourself.

Like the wounded lion or frightened snake, you may only end up causing more grief to the other person, resulting in even greater anguish for yourself. Happiness and good karma complement and fuel each other.

So, if peace is important to you, just know that it is funded by your karmic account.

The greater the karmic balance, the more the peace. It is in a state of peace alone that one experiences any type of joy. Ultimately, why do most people work, go on vacations, dine outside, live a lavish life, and wish for comforts? To enjoy themselves, right? To be happy, to be at ease with themselves, with those around them, with the world.

If you are happy to shed some of your expectations, and desires, if you are willing to be a little more forgiving, a bit more honest with yourself and others, you will find yourself at peace. If you can maintain that state under all circumstances, that will be self-realization. In that exalted state, you transcend all theoretical and intellectual propositions, your mind goes quiet and you experience an inexplicable flow of bliss. I say this from first-hand experience.

With peace and contentment as your armor, mindfulness and nobility being your mount, you win naturally, good karma happens effortlessly. You are a product of your thoughts, emotions, and karma. You can work on any one of these, the other two align automatically.

How do you work on these? Well, I have already covered that over the past few months. For better aid, I am segregating my posts and putting them in short e-books. They will be available for free download shortly. In the next post, I will expound on the four types of karma. Meanwhile, if you’d like to you can read The Karmic Trail and Psychic Imprints.

What they do with their body, mind, and life is their business. Your karmic transactions are your responsibility. It helps to mind your own business, especially if it is a sole proprietorship — the only permissible ownership structure in the Law of Karma.

Peace.
Swami