What is Karma? (July 9, 2007)
“Karma” means the consequence of an action. Whatever you act or think, it will always cause Karma that affects the future state of your being. For instance, if you speak ill or think of negative things about someone, you are releasing negative energy not only to the person but also to the Universe, and it will eventually come back to you instantly or in the future in a similar context. Karma, however, does not necessarily imply negative. There is good Karma as well, such as a compassionate action to others.
According to Vedic teaching, there are four types of karma.
1. Sanchita Karma: The sum of all accumulated past actions in all of our previous lifetimes. This type of karma sets the stage for the present life.
2. Prarabdha karma: A portion of Sanchita Karma that has resulted in the “present birth”, such as the planetary influence at the time of your birth.
3. Agami Karma: Type of Karma resulting from our present “willful” actions in this life, which have an effect on future retuning Karma. For instance, chanting a mantra is this type of Karma, which will benefit your future state of being.
4. Kriyamana Karma: A type of Karma resulting immediately from our present actions. For instance, speaking ill of someone will cause this type of Karma and it will come back to you negatively.
People in the East traditionally believe in “reincarnation”, meaning that humans repeat lives one after another (born and die, and reborn…) until they complete learning lessons from human life experiences, so that they don’t have to come back to the Earth any more. Humans’ task on this Earth is to learn lessons and reach higher. Any leftover or unfinished businesses are deeply stored in the Soul, which is also recorded in a spiritual book called “Akasha Record.” Although your memory of the past lives were wiped out at the time you were born, you somehow remember where to start, which is the unfinished businesses from the previous live.
We all were born with various Karma and our life journey is to learn about our own Karma and resolve it. As soon as your Soul is awoken, you would subconsciously know what Karma you are stuck with. The Karma will appear as a specific issue and challenge you over and over again, until you finally get the message and learn lessons from it. The Karma could be related to love, commitment, relationships, family, money, sex, career, etc.
I therefore encourage you to work on the Karma, rather than individual issues that you may encounter. You need to see your issues from a big picture and ask the Universe why I am challenged or stuck with the same type of issue over and over again.
It is the time to resolve the Karma rather than the individual issues. Karma is the root cause of the issues that makes your life difficult. Once you accept, understand and work on the Karma, all the issues related to it will resolve and you will be invited to elevate higher…
