Karmas for salvation

Rajesh Bhola

Living on this planet as a human being is a very diverse and intense experience. When we live a human life, we experience many sensations, thoughts and feelings. Souls love to be incarnated in the human form, to gain this special and rare experience of realness on Earth. There is a deeper meaning behind our travels.
With each such travel our souls move towards attaining perfection or salvation from the cycles of birth and death only by evolving to the level of ego-less-ness; we have to learn to become detached witnesses to the happenings in our lives. Many karmic seeds are needed to be sown, to reap the harvest of cyclic salvation. Good karmas start purging the effects of bad karmas, and lead finally to purification and freeing the being from the cycles of karma.
The term karma embraces both our past and present deeds.
Karma is a law in itself, and operates in its own field. Every time we think or do something, we create a cause which in time will bear its corresponding effect. This cyclical cause-and-effect generates the concepts of the world, of birth and reincarnation. The soul is constrained to a cycle of rebirth, trapped within the temporal world, until it finally achieves liberation by following a path of purification.
To get freedom from the constant recurrence of karmic cycles, it is necessary to be absolved of the past, present and future grievances. It is an individual's effort to reach the other shore. But it will be great if we are able to help others also land on the other side.
For this, it is necessary to share unconditional love and forgiveness with everybody. Let us put our ego and pride aside, and feel relieved of our karmic obligations by not feeling angry, by not hurting anybody, and by forgiving all.
All spiritually enlightened people took this path, for their salvation and emancipation from the karmic chakra. Such people are able to weather even the most terrible events without panicking, or creating further trouble. They have large hearts which, like a large expanse of water, can swallow even the largest boulders that fall into them, without the splash creating a tidal wave. But the majority of hearts are closed, and even a little pebble falling into their pond makes a great splash and disturbs them. Small hurts are quickly magnified into major crises. A person with a large heart, and a capacity to take life in his/her stride, reaches out to people both in joyful and difficult times. And each contact with suffering is an opportunity to increase our capacity for compassion and understanding.
We release our ties to the karmic cycle, when we arrive at the central point of motionlessness, on this seesaw. There is a feeling of stillness, compassion, joy and tranquility at this central point. In many oriental religions it is termed as moksha. It is a form of perfect tranquility and imperturbability, which takes us to another level of consciousness. We get rid of the energies of anxiety and fear; we become more quiet and open inside; we truly enter another world. It is the turning point. We start enjoying being with our self. We will start experiencing the world, and all its beauty, from this state of bliss. There is emancipation, liberation and freedom from the continuity of afflictions. The end of craving leads to the end of the circle of rebirths. Bliss resides where there is peace and joy in our heart.
The losses of dear and near ones, that we all encounter, mark us and make us. Suffering is part of what it means to be alive. Nobody is truly mature who has not suffered. We should learn to empathise with the sorrows and grief of others and grow as sensible citizens of a society. As the modern world is becoming more crowded and intricate, we need some guidance on how to live. We need to share the pain, and help others. We all know that pain, disease, decay and death will come upon us. Yet too often we live our lives pretending this will not happen to us.
None of us knows what is going to happen the next moment. All within a day we may discover that somebody close to us had a serious accident, or we may discover a lump in our body which has turned malignant, or learn that a major earthquake has shaken some part of the earth. We can be going along happily, when suddenly our world is turned upside down. We try to find refuge, and search for security. The pain and suffering is not something for each of us to solve on our own. It is by reaching out to one another that we can respond to our collective pain, in a constructive and spirited way.
Amidst sorrows, we are at times troubled, and question the meaning of our existence of birth and death. It is only when we have the courage to live life as it is, when we are no longer running away, that we experience a profound relaxation in our heart. We then no longer have to live defensively. We should not start to learn the art of self defense when ambushed. It is better to train oneself to handle the situation better.
The more aware we become of our lives, the more we realise just how blind we have been. Every time that greed, lust, hate, anger or apathy get the better of us, we have suffered another injury to our spirit. We need to increase our capacity to cope with such encounters. If we keep on working at this, we will be prepared when the big ambushes arrive. And such preparedness should be used in a positive way, in our reaction to the pain of others.
The choice of a life of love, compassion and hardships is, therefore, a way to rid oneself of the pain caused by moral guilt; and to perfect qualities that are necessary for the spirit to progress to a higher form. It is a most creative experience, to be able to monitor and navigate our karmas. We can heal ourselves of a number of wounds that have been suffered by us in many of our past incarnations. We can also feel blessed by feeling the pain of others; and by helping cure those who have been through the same afflictions. Each birth is yet another chance to perform better, and to hope to attain salvation.