HOW DOES A UNIVERSAL PHILOSOPHY
AND RELIGION
APPROACH THE UNIVERSE?
KARMA
Reason asks: "Do we reap what we sow?"
This idea of reaping and sowing is mentioned in all religions. The
Vedanta merely places this process within a larger context.
Karma refers to the law of action and reaction
on the psychological plane.
Karma (our existing condition) is fashioned through
our past desires or feelings, knowings, and willings. Behind
every action there's a desire as well as a thought. With
the desire and the thought, you try to figure out how to get whatever
it is you want. You then exert your will power.
In this way, desire, thought and action are interactive; they go
together. And it's the three combined which produces Karma. Thus,
we move through births into deaths and new births, reaping the
results of our actions. This is the Law.
There is no invisible providence controlling our
lives. We're the makers of our fate, the captains of our
souls.
The mental life of every being is unfolding out
of an underlying ignorance which arises at the beginning
of a particular creation. Through pleasures and
pains, the individual soul grows and matures. In some
lifetimes, we have pleasant experiences and in others
we have painful ones.
Success and failure is of our own doing,
and we have the power to change our destiny by changing
our attitude.
CONTINUE TO DO BETTER AND YOU WILL EVENTUALLY SUCCEED
The law of karma accounts for all the inequalities
of life. Thus, by changing our present thoughts and
actions we can be assured that our future will be
positive.
Moreover, good karma doesn't necessarily mean wealth and social
success.
It's those individual who are open to life, who let
the winds of change pass through their lives without holding
on with intensity. These are the ones who grow and mature in the
direction of their divine nature. This is good
karma.
