KARMA

“That’s just your karma…” – we may often hear this ironic phrase, but many times it’s used without proper understanding. Recently, when my dad used this saying, I assumed he had said this after talking to me but this was not the case :) In fact it’s a very common saying.  We hear it on the radio, TV, read it in books and interviews with famous people. It is quite appropriate to say that something has happened due to “just karma”, but do we really know what we are talking about?

What is this KARMA? Does karma affect our life and if so, what is the cause of it? Can we blame it for the course of events, for diseases, for those terrible things that happen more and more? Although we use this phrase very loosely, we should really understand what karma is about, because it is a very important matter as it has such a great impact on our life.

Karma is not a mean person who laughs every time we do something wrong or when things don’t go the way we’d like them to go. It is us who create our karma. Every day, personally, we make up our destiny– one that is close and one which is far away – after the death of this body. So when someone is born, they come into the pre-defined conditions which they deserve.

Karma means action. Every action we perform brings a certain reaction: “as you sow, so shall you reap”. This means that if you cheat, steal, betray – sooner or later you yourself will be cheated, betrayed and robbed.

People like to blame some circumstances, other people, God… I often read the comments relating to stories about a tragic event. Many times there are comments of so called atheists who sneer, mock, or simply ask rhetorically: “Where was God, why did He let such things happen?! Where is this merciful, just, loving, over all GOD?”

Oh, it is not so simple! God exists and it is He who created this perfectly functioning law of karma, which refers to each and every one of us. He’s not responsible for our past actions, or the actions which are performed now by egoistic, self-centered people. He’s not responsible either for the regular or mundane lives of people, or for those who climb the ladder of career, fame and wealth.

The law of karma applies to every living being. It is very fair. It watches our every action, every move – ones that are good and ones that are the most abominable, so that we get back what we deserve. Nothing will be unnoticed, except…

Are you curious?...

The age in which we now live is called Kali yuga. What hides beneath these harsh words? Exactly this: harshness. There are two reasons why this age is so hard and harsh: firstly it is because iron is the most predominant metal present in nature, and secondly: our hearts are hard and cold like iron. There is very little mercy, compassion or love in Kali Yuga, which is proven by the following story…

For many years our family has spent a lot of time traveling. Today we are here, tomorrow there, all this makes it so that we feel at home everywhere. Recently, we’ve spent two weeks at our friend’s in Romania.

When we arrived at his house, it was 2 am, dark outside – although many heaps of snow gave off some light. I looked at the thermometer – minus 10, brrr….

We had to start unloading our most essential luggage. The rest we decided to take in the next morning. The first sleepyhead who decided to go out from the warm car was Satya. She went to throw out the trash which accumulated from the long journey. When Satya came back, she was completely awake. She shouted: “Mom, someone threw out little puppies to the trash!!! They are crying because it’s so cold… What should we do?!” What should we do – a good question! What can you do with little squeaking puppies in the middle of the night, in a foreign country?

I ran to the trash can with Satya and after a moment we held four stinky, one-week old baby dogs, which shook from the excessive cold. I simply couldn’t believe it. Someone threw out these little dogs to get rid of them! As if they were an unwanted item. A broken thing, some junk. They are alive! They are not a broken pot or a holey shoe. They are alive and want to live very much – they are squeaking, shaking and are very hungry. How could someone simply dispose of them in a container for trash and peacefully go to bed without any thought…?

It can only be the influence of Kali yuga. Does anyone still doubt the words which are written above?! Kali yuga really exists, it prevails in our hearts, our minds and lives.

Its presence all around leaves an impact on our every step, because there are many such stories nowadays. Many people may just shrug their arms: “What can you do with such dogs? I can’t afford keeping so many animals in my house.

Ok, nobody forces anyone to make a zoo in their home. There are already organizations which take care of such matters. We only need to make a small effort and have a bit of good will and compassion… Actually there is a simple solution to counteract this cold and irony influence…

   „Nothing can last forever” – it is said in one of the famous Polish songs, and that’s true. Nothing is stable in this world, even things that appear as the most stable – finally will decay. This is the nature of this world, ruled by forces that are impossible to control by anybody. And although many scientists do their best to contradict this natural decay – material laws are following their path unflinchingly.

   It is difficult for us to agree with this, because we are built from another “matter” – “matter” which doesn’t disintegrate, because it just can’t :) It’s a spiritual energy – eternal, stable and it is never defeated by the influence of this world. ETERNITY is our nature, that’s why we cannot, we don’t know how and we don’t want to accept the fact temporariness. When your body ages – you are in pain, you are unpleasantly surprised with every new wrinkle appearing on your brow or the blotch on your hand. I don’t even want to mention death! Death for the living beings is so unnatural, that in facing it we are ready to do anything not to die. That’s not strange at all. Who wants to die? Who wants to go to the unknown without a possibility of return? NOBODY :)

   But there is no solution for this merciless law of temporariness. This is just how it is… Only the knowledge about the fact, that we do not belong to this world, is the real liberation. We are like aliens from another galaxy temporarily staying on the Earth.

   People say, that UFO or other strange creatures sometimes appear on the Earth. But… we are the UFOs!!! Identified objects, which appeared on the Earth, and after a set amount of time we have to leave. We put on suits enabling us to function in this world – our bodies – perfectly made appliances, which after some time of usage decay and we have to leave them. If you don’t belong to this world, then to live here you must to have a suit, through which you see, smell or hear. Sometimes, when someone’s suit has a defect, then it doesn’t work correctly: because it can’t see, or can’t hear, or is definitely immobile. To reside in such body is a nightmare…
   But another world exists, another dimension where you are really yourself, without that needless corporal ballast. The concept of time doesn’t exist there, the decay processes don’t occur, death doesn’t exist. This is our real home, for which everyone yearns and when it is reached, then there is nothing else to wish for.
And so, in fact:
   EVERYTHING CAN LAST FOREVER!

Do you think you can change one’s nature? I already lose hope… It is a shame for me to admit this, but I’m a very messy person… Recently, I left my glasses in the bathroom in the soap container, and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I would never think that I should look for them in the soapbox. I was already too ashamed to ask out loud: where are my glasses? Usually, my husband, with a smile answers asking: Did you check in the freezer? When I finally found them, I told myself: ENOUGH! And I put the glasses in a different place, of which I instantly forgot. I have this certain eye defect, which doesn’t require constant wearing of eye-glasses, so I keep on taking them off and putting them back on. I call my glasses “eyes” and sometimes I treat them pretty much as if they are alive. I affectionately speak to them in my mind: “Please, come out! Where did you hide again…?

So I looked for my eyes again: in the fridge, in my shoes, in the oven… Oh, they cause many worries and joys alike to me. The worries are when I can’t find them, but when I finally find them, I am very happy :) With my eyes, one never gets bored, because you can of course always go on a search for them...

I’ve already written about childbirth, but I would like to share some other thoughts that came to my mind when I was pregnant for the first time. I was a totally new, not familiar with me situation in which my body wasn’t behaving the way it used to. I was horrified to think about my growing belly even to the point that I couldn’t sleep at night, and the morning sickness only powered up my mental dilemmas. I was most afraid of giving birth! What is going to happen?! How will it be?!Maybe I’ll share the fate of many women who died during this horrifying event?! What if the child is sick?! I pushed such thoughts to the end of my consciousness. When started having my first labor pains, I didn’t believe that it had already come. My husband also wasn’t sure. When I told him about the “weird” pains, he said: “Go, and lie down, maybe it’ll stop.”

But the pains didn’t go away, on the contrary - they were worse and worse, to the point where nothing could push aside the moment which appeared so instantly and was to change my life forever. I was to become a mother for the first time.

When I was lying in the hospital, my mind was going crazy: So here I am now, and now THIS is going to happen! This moment, of which I knew for about 9 months, has come, and I’m in a situation in which I’ve never been. Something absolutely new! You can’t do anything to change the way of events, I’m just totally left to what’s going to happen. I can’t say: Excuse me, I don’t want this, I want to go home!

There, I thought that from the practical point of view, this can be compared to death. Everyone knows that there will come a moment where you’ll be in a totally new situation, where you can’t do anything but wait for the fate to decide. You won’t be able to go back, rewind and say: I want to go home! You will not know where will you go, what is waiting for you there, because no one knows what is on the other side…. So I thought:

I HAVE TO PREPARE FOR THIS!

   Love is blind. But it is the most beautiful ineffectuality that I wish to every one of you. Because to love, means to be happy. Each one of us is looking for this happiness – it is our inherent characteristic, which is compared to wetness: you can’t separate wetness from water, and in the same way you can’t separate the desire to love from every spirit soul. We can see this in many instances. We, for example have a cat on our balcony, she just got domesticated here. We live on the first floor, and the balcony is open, so anyone can just go up here any time. And the cat just came to us and stayed. She lives in a carton quite satisfied with life. When I look at this animal, I observe how much love, attention and care she desires from another person. When Satya opens the balcony, our cat meows and fawns, showing how she wants love. In the beginning we thought she was hungry, but when bring her nice goodies, she hardly even looks at them, and still wants care. You have pet her, say sweet words and then she feels loved. Nothing is weird in that. Every one of us needs to love and be loved. Because, as I’ve already said, to love means to be happy, it means to locate you heart someplace where you don’t worry about it being broken and crushed. Only in this state, one may feel truly satisfied and fulfilled. Let me put here the most beautiful description of love:

 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.

 Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;  rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

   An ideal description, I don’t know a better one than this. The one who wrote it must have experienced the taste of real love. It is sad that this feeling is so rare in this world, as one great philosopher said: “Real love between people has become so rare that people don't even know what it is”…

MANTRAS

   Generally, people like to sing, to hum something. Even those who can’t really sing.  I saw an elderly man the other day, who was fixing his bike.  I almost stopped: he was singing so frantically during his activity, that I wondered if everything was alright with him. It turned out that he simply had a good day, even to the point that I picked up his happy mood too. I smiled at him, and he jumped on his bike and still singing loudly, went on his way. A really simple activity, but brings so much joy. I thought that if he knew mantras, he wouldn’t only get a mental happiness.

   Mantras are unusual sounds. They give refuge to the soul and body; they are a natural sustenance for all living beings. They act on an invisible, subtle level. Sometimes people ask how those sounds work. The nicest and really accessible way of explaining this, is with the example of the sun. The sun is very far away, but it has a great impact on us if we come under its influence. Someone may not believe, shake their head in disbelief – the effect will take place. You only need to sit in a sunny place for some time and you may want to or not, your skin will get tanned.

It is similar with mantras. If you come into contact with them, if you repeat, listen or meditate on them – there will be a subtle effect on you so that you gradually begin to experience the inner satisfaction, see things as they really are. You may believe or not, but you can be just skeptical. If you are sincere, and consequently repeat for example the simple: Gopala Govinda Rama Madana Mohana, simply to check if it works – it works. Like the sun. :-)