Do you believe in karma?
Karma Isn’t Revenge, It’s a Mirror: Why I Have Come to Believe in It
Do I believe in Karma?
For many years, I would have given you a very intellectual answer. Today, at this stage of life, my answer is much simpler: Yes, I do. Not because I have seen the universe punish someone, but because I have seen life quietly reflect who we are.
Let me be clear about what I mean by Karma. I don’t mean it in the way it is often used on social media — that instant, dramatic revenge. “He did wrong, so Karma will get him.” Life is rarely that theatrical.
The Karma I believe in is the one our elders spoke about. In Sanskrit, Karma just means action. It is not fate. It is not a judgement. It is the simple, profound law that every action carries an energy, and that energy has to go somewhere.
Over the decades, I have come to see it work in three ways.
- Karma lives in our own mind first.
When we act out of anger, jealousy or dishonesty, we are the first to pay the price. We lose our own peace. Sleep becomes lighter. When we act with generosity and honesty, even when no one is watching, we become more at ease with ourselves. In that sense, we receive our Karma instantly.
- Karma lives in our relationships.
This world is smaller than we think. How we treat people when we have nothing to gain from them — the waiter, the junior colleague, the stranger on the phone — that behaviour eventually becomes our reputation. And reputation travels faster than we do. I have seen kindness extended twenty years ago return as an unexpected helping hand. I have also seen arrogance from the past close doors in the present.
It is not magic. It is simply that people remember how you made them feel.
- Karma lives in who we become.
This is the most important one. Every small action is a practice. Every time we choose the easy lie over the difficult truth, we practise becoming a person who lies. Every time we choose discipline over convenience, we practise becoming a person who is strong.
We are not just doing things. We are becoming someone through what we do. That becoming our real Karma.
I do not believe Karma means that good people will never suffer, or that difficult times are a punishment for past sins. Life can be deeply unfair, and to say otherwise would be unkind and untrue. Sometimes good people face terrible hardships, and that is not their fault.
But I do believe this: while we cannot always control what happens to us, we can always control what we send out. And what we send out shapes the world we have to live in.
Karma, for me, is not about fear. It is about responsibility. It is a gentle reminder that my thoughts, my words and my actions are not isolated. They are echoes. And I want to be mindful of the echoes I leave behind.
What about you — do you see Karma as a spiritual belief, or simply as life’s way of mirroring us?
No comments:
Post a Comment