As the person progresses in love, in service, he is automatically distancing
himself from the effect of events. The events take place, but they have less and
less effect on his psychology. In the East they say: well, it’s my karma. In France
they say: well, c’est la vie. Gradually, we have to develop an attitude of c’est la
vie. If it is good, easy: c’est la vie. If it is hard, if it is painful, makes us unhappy:
c’est la vie. We really have to live with that attitude.
Right Relationship Ends the Karmic Cycle
The Law of Karma is a great binding law, but it is benign. Nobody receives
more karma than their soul, and the Lords of Karma, know they can usefully
handle. Some lives for some people are very hard, very painful, very limited
indeed. From the point of view of the soul, this is probably intentional and useful,
productive. Because the soul knows that, by the burning in this way of a burden
of karma from the past, greater progress can be made. What holds us back, what
limits us, is our karma. The efforts made in dealing with the karma pave the way
for periods of growth. Our development proceeds thus in cycles.
The Law of Karma is not a mechanical law of punishment. If you hit somebody
on the head, it is not inevitable that you will be hit on the head. It is not a question
of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It is simply the energetic outcome of
previous causes set in motion by ourselves. All that we do will inevitably come
back in some way or other. However, we can do something about it. The
untouchables of India can change their lives. They are not bound by karma to be
untouchables. That is a social structure, a class system, which binds people to
particular stations in life. It is totally artificial and man-made. The poverty, the
squalor, the degradation and the misery of people in the Third World is not
necessary, it is not a result of karma, but of our greed. And we have the major
responsibility to help them change these conditions and enter true living.
People think of karma as always from the past life, but what about yesterday’s
karma, or the day before, last week’s, last month’s karma? It is this succession of
moments of action and reaction which today we are coping with, which tomorrow
and in our next life we will cope with. Until we come into right relationship with
each other and with the whole of which we are a part, we will go on making bad
karma. It is more important, more useful, to realize the benefit of right
relationship, thus handling the Laws of Karma and Rebirth correctly, than to know
our past lives.
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