A Universal Law

“As a man sows, so shall he also reap” refers basically to the Law of Karma and seems to be easy to grasp; if you sow rice, you will reap rice. If you plant apples, you will harvest apples. However, its application in daily life in detail, the method of its working and its far-reaching consequences are so vast and is getting more complicated as our knowledge increases. This normally brings in mind thousands of questions that sometimes remain unanswered as our knowledge and understanding of our past and countless previous incarnation are often so little.

“Things do not happen without a cause, but sometimes we just don’t know the cause.”

Master Choa Kok Sui

Knowing and understanding Karma not only gives us so much freedom and will to modify and change our destiny, but also brings about us greater responsibility towards our thoughts, words and deeds, as we see a unity in every part of the universe and how our being affects the whole.

Karma in word means “action” and it basically refers to the law of Cause and Effect. The word action is basically far beyond what ordinary mind thinks, since every action has a past which leads up to it and a future that proceeds after it. An action relates to a desire that has promoted it and a thought which has shaped it, as well as an action. Each act in this case is linked to an endless chain of causes and effects; each effect becoming a cause, and each cause having been an effect! Each link in this endless chain is made up of desire, thought and act. Sometimes a desire creates a thought and the thought brings about an action and sometimes a thought, like a memory, arouses a desire and the desire bursts into an act. Therefore Karma can be interpreted as the Law of Causation or the Law of Equilibrium.

Karma being a natural law, is not good nor bad. It is a sequence of conditions, meaning that if a condition is present, another condition will follow as an invariable condition. Therefore if you want to bring about a specific condition, you need to create the primary condition and then the second one will inevitably follow.

“Both pleasant and unpleasant experiences are necessary for our growth. All are ultimately good.”

Master Choa Kok Sui

Therefore the Law of Karma is not fatalistic. It is a law that exists in nature and in the universe that helps us live, grow and learn through the consequences of our actions. Existence of such law in the universe does not bind, but it frees. In a lawless universe, effort would be pointless, reason would be useless. In a lawless universe, we won’t have enough courage to move not knowing what our action might bring for us. In fact we live, move and act freely and surely because of the existence of such laws!

Above all, Karma builds our character! “By the Law we suffer, so by the Law do we triumph.” (Besant, 2003, p. 73) Having knowledge and understanding of Karma, phrases such as “that is my nature! I cannot change it!” does not apply, as even though each one of us are made in a certain way based on our previous Karma, we are still capable of changing it, using Karma. Knowledge and will is what we need.

“This universal Law of Causation binds together into one all that happens within a manifestation, for it is universal interrelation. Interrelation between all that exists – that is Karma. It is therefore coexistent, simultaneous with the coming into existence of any special universe. Therefore Karma is eternal as the Universal Self.”

Annie Besant

References

1. Besant, A. (2001). A Study in Karma. The Theosophical Publishing House.
2. Besant, A. (2002). Karma. The Theosophical Publishing House.
3. Besant, A. (2003). The Riddle of Life. The Theosophical Publishing House.
4. Master Choa Kok Sui. (2004). Achieve the Impossible, The Golden Lotus Sutras on Spiritual Business Management. Institute for Inner Studies Publishing Foundation.