A parent’s love for their child is one of the purest forms of unconditional love there is in the world. And yet, how often do we hear parents say ‘I did everything for my children and yet look at what they have done to me’. Or times when you have done everything right in your relationship with your spouse and somehow things don’t work out. What do we do when we end up in such situations? Is it fair to feel pain and hurt? What happens to all the spiritual knowledge that says no one is responsible for what and how we feel. It is our choice and responsibility.
Have you ever been through a phase where all the spiritual knowledge you have indulged yourself in and have been practicing gets challenged? All is going well and suddenly someone cuts into your lane on the road and before you know it, you lose your peace of mind and blame that person. Or someone pokes you hard with a sarcastic comment about your work and in your head you are screaming ‘why me?’.
The truth is everything we do in life creates karma. Karma is the luggage your soul carries on its trip from one life to another life. And once karma is created it will come back to us multifold in the future, not just in this lifetime but in every lifetime. What you have sent out into the world is what comes back to you. What goes around comes around. Our karma follows us through our many lifetimes. Karma does not see that you have changed your birth and are now in a new life or a new relationship. A new birth means your soul is in a new costume now – but karma continues to be carried by your soul through the many lifetimes it travels.
So when people who have been nice so far, who we think we know well, turn around and do something nasty or unbecoming of them to us, remember it may be past karma playing catch up. Maybe in this lifetime or some other lifetime you had done something wrong to them and before they settled it with you, you left that life and took birth elsewhere. And now after several decades, this person unleashes fury on you in the form of a family member, colleague, friend or a stranger from nowhere and you are wondering, ‘what did I do to deserve this? I have been so caring and honest all through, then why did this happen to me?’
Standing here in the present moment, we have no control over our past karma. But what we do have control over is our future and our destiny by choosing to respond to whatever is happening right now with an understanding that this is happening to us because of some past unsettled karmic account.
Sidra Jafri shares the 3 magical steps of dealing with karma and creating a future of our choice.
Awareness
Become aware of the karmic cycle of our soul and understand that whatever is happening right now, is a result of some past karma. ‘Just the awareness of past karma showing up is exciting. Because it presents you with the golden opportunity to create an action that helps you settle it’ – says Sidra.
Acceptance
Without accepting what has come into your awareness, you cannot move towards creating a change or a response. When we become aware, but do not accept what is happening is when we react, instead of responding. Let’s not mistake acceptance for giving in or giving up. Acceptance simply means to accept what is. The involuntary reflex that reactiveness brings with it leads to more karma getting created. And this karmic ball keeps getting bigger and bigger. Hence, acceptance is key to moving forward in the right direction. It helps you operate from a space of neutrality.
Action
When you accept that which has come into your awareness, you create space for a conscious action to take place. A conscious action is a response based on our thinking and taking action in the situation we are placed in. This can be very empowering. It gives you a chance to choose your thoughts and actions. When someone talks badly to you, it is no longer about – why me, or how dare you. The inner conversation is about awareness that these words may or may not be a result of what is happening now, but could be past karma catching up. By accepting it and then choosing to respond and act in a way that helps you will not only help settle past karma, but also help create positive ripples of your action can surely change what comes back to you in future.
So if you are bogged down in the worst of situations today, take heart and get excited. Here is your opportunity to use the above tools and create a future that brings your way the fruit of karmic seeds sown today. You have a choice to use the above steps to begin a journey that creates positive change. When your actions today are a series of conscious decisions and choices, you slowly and surely begin to change your destiny.
The simplest way to shift our action in the face of an unpleasant show of karma is to use the following statement.
‘I am sorry for the hurt I have caused you in the past. Please forgive me.’ Write it 7 times for 7 days and allow change to take place. Now you may be thinking, this would be impossible to do. We invite you to break through the resistance and access the all knowing, all wise part of you to indulge in this process and set yourself free from some baggage for the good.
Like BK Shivani says, ‘think before you talk, think before you think and think before you think if that thought is worth thinking or not. Because the moment you think the thought you have created both – karma and destiny.’
The thoughts you send out are your karma and what comes back is your destiny. It’s like a boomerang. What goes around comes around. Once the thought has been sent out, it cannot be called back. It comes back to you as people’s behavior or circumstances and catches you unaware. It is at times like this that we need to remember that we had sent out this thought sometime in the past and it is now coming back to us.
With the tools that Sidra has shared with us, the journey of thinking, being and manifesting can be a beautiful one.
