Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Karma: Do You Believe In It?


“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”

Omar Khayaam.

I used to believe in karma while I was very young, obviously influenced by what was drummed into me by my parents and other such wise people of my time.They were not to blame for they were drummed to think like that and they passed it on to their children.
However, as I evolved, I came to understand, that there is not such thing as fate/ destiny or karma. We are just led to believe in such things which have been basically been man made just to instill the fear of God in us.
We may believe in some super power/ God, but we can change our attitude towards this Universal life force. We can definitely change our thought patterns, and view our lives from a different perspective. We can think we are the architect of our own destiny. No need to give the power of what happens or not happens in our lives to somebody / something else, like a fate, a destiny or a God.


What we might have done in our past births need not continue to haunt us in our present or our future births.
Yes we might have done some good things, and may have done some very horrible things in all our previous births, and it is natural, for we are human.

It  is easy for us to put the blame on something / someone, when things seem to baffle us: Fate/ karma is always there to shift the blame, fall back on such beliefs and sayings: "what goes round comes back, what we sow so we reap, we have to be good to escape punishment by some unknown hand", and so on....
We  tie ourselves in knots trying to do things with a lot of expectation, we seem to thrive in the unshakable thought that,what we do now would definitely come and haunt  in the present future in this birth itself or in our future births.  We eagerly await rewards and punishments for all our action.
Wake up, remember, there is no need to be a meek and blind follower. Come out of this whirlpool, and see the unlimited possibilities, that this life has to offer. We need not be stuck in the age  old beliefs.  We must understand that everything in life is not a business deal: you get only what you bargained for: that is so untrue.

The minute we decide to release ourselves of any kind of debts in all our past births and also free others who may feel that they are indebted to us, we not only become free ourselves but also free others from being attached to us or bound to us in any way. This a win win situation.


We jump out of the vicious cycle in which we were constantly made to go round and round without any end. We can forgive and ask to be forgiven and move on into a new lane.


I think our Vedas and our great spiritual books have actually said this only, but since we have become used to misinterpreting everything, we have lost the real meaning of life.

The above quote  by Omar Khayyam too is actually not what it seems to mean, read closely you would find a different meaning.


For me: I am neither bound by my past , nor by my present past, nor my future is bound by anything or anybody. I am a free bird and I remain a free bird forever.
Stop believing in karmas, and start thinking in more productive manner.


Do you believe in karma?

21 comments:

  1. Rama,we are not on the same page.I firmly believe in the dictum that every action has a reaction.The law of cause and effect,the biblical saying as you sow ,so you reap and the maxim we are served,what we have cooked all reinforce the theory of karma.This is not something that is passed on from earlier generation but one I have concluded explains the scheme of things in life.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks KP for sharing your honest opinion here. I really appreciate it.

      Delete
  2. Very interesting. It is said that "God" was created by Roman kings to establish some discipline in the common people.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Liked your thoughts Rama. For me, yes, I believe in Karma, for, some questions in life have no answers and at such times probably karma steps forward to offer an explanation. Especially when I see differently able people, why do they have to undergo such hardships. Why are we born with all senses and not they. From my observations,the play of destiny and choice is like a dog trying to touch his tail.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I believe, that it was our choice to be the way we are.Before our birth in this world itself we are shown hundreds of choices by the super power to choose, we are given total freedom to choose what we would like. It is fun for us to see so many options of roles to play, now you may wonder why do some people choose to be blind, lame / deaf etc. That is because they have already done other roles in their lives, they got bored doing the same very happy, happy easy going roles. They want some challenging roles so they take up these difficult roles, and since we forget everything the moment we take birth in this world, we drown ourselves in the feeling , that we are the victim of fate, we are reaping for our past sins etc.
      I realised that when I had a stroke all of a sudden. I could understand why I had the stroke. The simple reason was because I wanted to experience the difficulties of being a stroke victim, I had to experience, what it felt like to be in a position where I cannot do anything that I took for granted in my life. It is just a role I had wanted to play even before I had chosen to take my birth.
      Unfortunately we suffer a lot, not realising that everything had already been planned long before by us, and not by some unseen God.
      I don't know whether I am making any sense to you Padmaja
      Thanks for sharing your views here.

      Delete
  4. My mother used to talk about karma all the time. I don't seem to give importance to it. I just believe in not hurting anybody knowingly, as much as possible. If we don't do, we will be alright, I feel. Good analysis!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Sandhya. Yeah it is true so many of our parents and our great grand parents were led to believe strongly in fate. They did good things only with the hope that it might give them some extra brownie points when they left this world to somewhere unknown. But they did these things to the best of their knowledge at the given time, and we are not judging them for doing so.

      Delete
  5. I like this post, whether there is Karma or not is academic, it is what we do now that shapes our life/lives.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It has always been so, we are the architects of our own destiny. For most of us it is easy to give up that position, and remain a mere spectator.
      Thanks John.

      Delete
  6. Karma is the bogeyman invented to drive the hell of the fear into us, to harness us to sort of ensure that we do nt astray from conventions and traditions.
    I agree with you, this is mumbo jumbo stuff.

    Wonder what was the karma of an infant suffering from acute lymphoma for instance. To blame it on its past birth is fallacy and sadistic because as a child it seldom can know good and bad , right or wrong.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Anil. It is true that all these are just man made mumbo jumbo,good ,that I din't get permanently influenced by what I was told.I broke out from this false belief many years ago.

      Delete
  7. I believe that whatever you do to others comes back to you. Whatever you give the universe, the universe will pay you back double. Do I call it karma? For the luck of better word sometimes, yes. But I do believe that you get what you give. :)

    This is a really relevant topic.

    ReplyDelete
  8. i believe very firmly in the karmic theory. But nice to read ur point of view :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you Ankita. Yes it is always interesting to know about different opinions, that is why we blog.
    However, it would be good if you could elaborate about your firm belief in this theory.

    ReplyDelete
  10. In accordance with the points shown here you are correct,Rama.But I have a firm belief in 'Karma'. As matter cannot be created and destroyed, some spirit of ours,may I call it 'Atma' (Soul) prevail here in different forms in various births.No deed goes unrecognized or gets recognized by a predetermined destiny.There are abundant things which the Science or the small man cannot explain in this world.How come that our bodyis symmetrical and it is full of working machines in proper order without colliding with each other.Some destiny controls beings and things in the Universe, otherwise there wouldn't have been any proper working order of theirs.The topic is wide.It is like the blind men's viewing of elephant.Anyway nice topic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for sharing your views on the topic, it is interesting!

      Delete
  11. Hello greetings and good wishes.

    Karma or fate is only meant for consoling ourselves when we find it difficult to accept defeats and failures. As a result we fail to put in the extra effort needed to become a success. When we don't put in the extra effort we continue to remain failures and blame it on karma. This is an easy way out and we make compromises with what we have instead of striving for more and better things and greater achievement for which we have potential.

    Many times I blame my fate and feel very satisfied and comfortable with my self.

    Very thought provoking post.

    Best wishes

    ReplyDelete
  12. You have really nailed it Joseph. I fully agree with you. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks for sharing your views on this subject.

    ReplyDelete