When we fail in life, how can we immediately understand that past karma is at work?
Podcast
Transcript
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How can we cultivate that understanding that results that we are getting are not necessarily because of our actions alone If we don’t get what we deserve, we get something bad when we have done something good. How can we learn to immediately accept that as karma rather than need to hear some philosophy to understand it It’s not necessary that we always have to resort to past karma only.
It’s like say, suppose on a cold night somebody eats 10 ice creams and then the next morning they have a terrible throat and they say ice cream Now their terrible throat is it because of past karma Yeah, past night karma So it’s not that everything that happens to us is just because of past karma. There is a combination of present karma and past karma which comes together in giving us certain results That’s why we have to be practical also That means if I am doing something and I am not getting the result then is there something that I could do to improve it We should think about it. We should not think that it’s past karma See in one sense over reliance on past karma as the explanation will make us very passive and fatalistic Over reliance on present karma will make us very insecure and volatile because every failure will start taking it too personally So if I don’t do well in exam sometimes it may be that I may not have studied but I have studied well but still I didn’t do well in exam In relationship sometimes it happens that people try to form a relationship and doesn’t work It could be that there is something wrong with me but sometimes it’s just that the other person is at fault.
We shouldn’t presume that but sometimes it can be like that sometimes some people are just abusive, some people are terrible people So then something doesn’t work out especially in today’s culture where people have dating and everything and if somebody breaks up with them, people feel so insecure after that I am unloved, I will be unlovable and people become very insecure One of the top ten fears of people in today’s world is the fear of rejection I form a relationship and I may get rejected by someone So if we rely too much on present karma then what happens? Our life becomes very volatile We become very unstable because we take everything very personally but sometimes things don’t have to be taken so personally So basically I said put things in the right frame of reference So normally the immediate cause effect is the first frame of reference So suppose if I go for a program somewhere and there is nobody there for the program Now I could take it personally and say I am such a poor speaker that nobody comes Now that could be true but suppose that program has been done at a place where at the same time there is some other big event going on and everybody has gone there Then I have to put it in that context Put it in that context So I remember I went for a program in one country and the host he invited me in He said actually I am going for that program You can sit, whoever comes they will attend this class That was quite humbling Laughing So But you don’t have to necessarily take everything too personally So basically rather than thinking of a right explanation or wrong explanation So if we do something and we get some result Is it because of our present karma or past karma Now rather than trying to get too much into that analysis we focus on trying to find the most constructive frame of reference in which to put it It’s not that one frame of reference is right and the other is wrong We don’t know in these cases what is right and what is wrong But what is the most constructive frame of reference So if I have done something and I have not done it so well Then the most constructive frame of reference is ok let me take care of this in future But if I have done the best that I can and still the result is not coming and the most constructive frame of reference is Ya means there is some past karma involved Then let me move on Now moving on also we will have to use our intelligence to decide should I keep doing this keep doing this And if we have given a reasonable amount of tries for that and that is not working Maybe that is not meant to work Maybe we need to move to something else So rather than trying to simply resign the results to past karma alone We try to place things in the most constructive frame of reference So that we can move on in our life Does that answer your question? Thank you Any other questions?