When it comes to karma, what’s not to believe? This Sanskrit word which literally means ‘action’ refers to the cause and effect between what people do and consequences. In Christianity this moral concept is expressed in the well-known assumption – As you sow, so you will reap. Saint Basil the Great is famed for having said, “A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds…and he who plants kindness gathers love.” The way that I understand karma is that chances are if my actions are made with love and pure intentions, I’ll have better outcomes. For instance, when I listen to successful businesspeople talk about what it means to be lucky, they often refer to dedication and an overriding care for all aspects of their businesses.
As my head teacher – Nature – constantly reveals to me the interconnectedness of all things, and especially through the example of the weather which in extremity can cause disasters, relatedness reminds me to have true actions or ‘keep it real.’ If I’m honest with myself, then kindness is what I want to receive and therefore I ought to be kind. There are times when in despair people may not be able to act nicely and then they might find the words of HRH the Dalai Lama helpful, “Do good and if you cannot do good, at least do no harm.”
In their song Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) John Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote about how “Instant karma’s gonna get you” and went on to ask the question, “What in the world you’re thinking of/Laughing in the face of love?” I have an experience of instant karma which, despite happening years ago, I can’t forget. This incident also taught me that karma doesn’t always occur in an obvious way. What happened is that after using a taxi free phone in a supermarket, I got into a verbal fight with an older woman, who’d also called for a taxi. When my/her taxi arrived, the helpful driver resolved the matter by offering to take both of us. This woman sat in the passenger seat and the taxi driver dropped her off first. As soon as she shut the car door, I noticed that she’d forgotten her walking stick. As we’d been fighting, I didn’t say anything. I guess I wanted her to have this inconvenience. We drove on towards my home. The traffic was horrible. Then the driver noticed the woman’s walking stick. Holding tight with both hands on his steering wheel to control his frustration, he reacted in anguish, “Now I’ve got to turn around after I’ve dropped you and go back to that woman’s address and I’m going to lose so much time.”
The karma-denier may believe that consequences are random and suggest that, as proved by human monsters like Jimmy Saville and Mohammed Al-Fayed, it’s possible to die before being made to account for vile behaviour. Your legacy may be disgraced but if you’re dead what do you care? In Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism, the Law of Karma implies that a person’s actions in this life also determine their fate in future lives. In my mind, it’s 50/50 odds that there is (or isn’t) an afterlife. But precisely because there’s a chance that there is an afterlife, that our souls may exist beyond time and space, I choose to believe that how we act in our mortal lives on earth, matters.
