Commentaries by Vee Jay Attri during the Book Study – Secrets of Karma
We talked about three important Laws of Karma; Law of Harvest, Law of Lag Time and Law of Multiplier Effect. Under the law of harvest, we talked about four important points. The first one was: As you sow, so you reap”. We talked about the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you!
That means all the time you have to be careful about what is going out of you, whether through your thoughts or your speech or actions, because whatever that goes out will come back to you, usually multiplied. That means, if you want peace, if you want to be happy, ensure that you do not create any stress to anybody, even with your thoughts.
Thoughts are energy and certainly the person whom you think while you are having this kind of critical or negative thoughts will be definitely affected. That will in turn create stress for the person, will disturb their family life.
So many things happen with just one critical thought and intense negative thought or anger directed towards somebody which can bring about an imbalance in many levels of the person’s life. It can affect their family relationship, it can affect their performance in their office, it can affect their finance.
So many things can happen just with one intense negative thought towards somebody and when so much of harm is being caused to somebody, do not expect something great to happen to you and that is the reason why, you need to be careful about what you are sowing, moment to moment with your thoughts, speech and actions.
The second important point was, ‘Debts’ to pay have to be paid. That means regardless of how clever you are in avoiding a problem, that which you have to pay will come back to you in some form or the other sooner or later.
That is why we said, “No debt in the universe ever goes unpaid.” It is from Dr Deepak Chopra, from his book “the Seven Spiritual Law of Success”. Learn to cheerfully bear whatever that comes to you while you do everything to neutralize by way of generating good karma, by way of committing yourself to intelligent actions but never ever react when you have to face a challenge or a problem.
So, we talked about Dr Annie Besant’s beautiful quotation which says: “Do not sow a new seed when you are reaping the old.” That means, every time you react when there is a challenge or a problem or you get angry or frustrated, this is actually a way of sowing a new seed.
That is the reason why, for many people, life continues with challenges and problems. They never find any transformation happening because they never realize they are constantly sowing new seed, which are again and again compelling them to reap the same karma over and over again.
So, the better way is to bear the challenges of your life cheerfully because it belongs to you. You can never reap something that does not belong to you. When challenges and problems happen, do not run here and there, not even to pundits or a priest, not even to a black magician.
Of course, you can talk to spiritual masters for guidance but when it comes to facing challenges and neutralizing a karma, you have to work on yourself. Masters are there to give you guidance but if you think that somebody can take your karma out, that is actually misunderstanding the teachings of karma.
Nobody can take out your karma because karma in the first place is not to punish you. Karma in the first place is to give you the experience through which you learn the lesson and evolve. That means, the purpose of karma is evolution.
So, if somebody is trying to take out the karma for you, that is not going to work out. Get the lesson very correctly. Once you learn the lesson perfectly, a lesson that is learned is not going to repeat again and that is the second point.
The third important point was about the law of harvest, “Rejoice in the success of others.” That means eliminate enviousness from your life. Never ever compare yourself with anybody, if someone is successful, rejoice in the success. Learn to rejoice in the success of others internally, not just externally by celebrating.
Internally, there should be so much of blessings outpouring towards that person who is successful. When somebody hits a jackpot, do not think ‘Oh, I wish I had got it! You have to say, ‘‘My dear brother, my dear sister, eons of time you might have been struggling generating little good karma, the result of which you are receiving today. I bless you with more success, more abundance!’’ That should be your attitude.
When you keep on celebrating and rejoicing the success of others, you will receive whatever that is necessary for you at the right time. That means, any envious thoughts creates an obstacle, a blockage in your success and you have to eliminate enviousness completely.
The fourth one we talked about is, “Do your best and leave the rest.” Here, we talk about the most important virtue of surrendering. After you do whatever best you can do to the best of your ability in any given situation, learn to surrender.
The virtue that you need to develop in your life is “Detachment.” Detachment is not about being cold or indifferent. Detachment is a perfect way to express pure love. A person who is able to practice perfect detachment is the one who actually extends absolute love, pure love.
The great masters Buddha, Christ, they are all beings of compassion, mercy, love but they are perfectly detached because they understand that what you and I have to experience is not about being punished, it’s about evolution.
You have to learn the lesson out of an experience given to you so that you grow spiritually and therefore great masters do not interfere with your karma. They only give you guidance. So, these were the four important points that we read under Law of Harvest.
Law of Lag Time
There is a very beautiful quotation from Dhammapada. The word Dhammapada, in fact it’s two words, Dhamma and pada, in pali. That’s the language in which Buddha was teaching. Dhamma means truth, pada is path and therefore, the path of truth. Let us see what Buddha had said in the Dhammapada.
When we say Buddha, we are referring to Gautama Siddhartha in this context, but the Buddha is not the name of a person. It is an office, like you got the office of Christ, office of Buddha, just like you got the offices of prime minister, of presidents which keep on changing.
For example, the Buddha who is the world teacher now is Lord Maitreya, that means the offices of the Buddha keeps on changing from beings after beings. So, it is not basically a name of a person, it is an office.
Similarly, when you say Christ, you are usually connected with Lord Jesus Christ but Jesus was the vehicle which actually was overshadowed by the Christ. So, these are all very deeper level of esoteric teachings you need to understand.
‘‘So long as the evil action does not mature karmically, the fool thinks his action to be as sweet as honey. But when it matures, the fool experiences untold misery’’
-The Dhammapada
Now, this is a very profound statement that actually contains two laws, the law of lag time and the law of multiplier effect.
This statement of the Buddha, the Enlightened one in Dhammapada or ‘the path of truth’ contains within it the profound laws of karma. First, the Buddha says:
‘‘So long as the evil action does not mature…’’
This statement refers to the ‘Law of Lag Time.’ We can learn this law from nature. Just as marigolds can blossom in a few weeks while mango trees take years to bear fruits, in the same way, you reap the fruit of some actions quickly, while others may take a longer time, even lifetimes.
So, there is a very beautiful story that is illustrated here. This is actually from the scripture Mahabharata. We are referring to the king by name Dhritarashtra who was born blind.
So, during the war, he lost all his hundred sons, he was in deep pain and he was talking to Lord Krishna about his life. He said “I am such a kind and just king, I have never harmed anybody, how did I face so much of cruelty in my life?” Lord Krishna said, ‘‘Why don’t you go to your past life and check what did you do ?’’ So, he had the ability to go to his past life and he said, “In one hundred of my past lives, I haven’t done any such things for me to be born blind and lose all my hundred children.”
Lord Krishna said, ”Why don’t you go to one more lifetime, that is the one hundred and first previous?” So, the king meditated and then finally, he told Lord Krishna, ‘‘It is indeed absolutely justified why I have been born blind and lost my hundred children, because in that one hundred and first previous life, I was a tyrant king and I was walking along the lake one day, and I happened to see a swan surrounded by cygnets.” So, just for pleasure he narrated, he actually made the swan blind and he killed all the one hundred cygnets.
Cygnets means the offspring of the swan. Now, to understand, these are all basically extraordinary teachings that contain greater wisdom, symbolically to teach the law of lag time. Why law of lag time first of all? You have to understand that the conditions have to be conducive for a karma to mature.
In the hundred lifetimes, the conditions were not conducive for this heinous crime of the king to mature. But in this lifetime, he had one hundred sons and in this lifetime he had to be born blind and therefore, in return to the hundred cygnets he killed for pleasure, he had to pay the karma for that.
No karma gets matured just like that. Karma gets matured when you are ready to learn a lesson. That is exactly what we call conducive. The condition have to be conducive for a karma to mature.
So, the lag time is an extremely important aspect of the laws of Karma. That means, regardless of how good a person you are now, you don’t know what you were in your previous lifetimes.
That is the reason why, all the time remember “whatever that I reap is a consequence of something that I had sown in the past”. It is impossible to reap something that you did not sow.
Further reading: Secrets of karma, Page 19
