I have to understand that a negative reaction happens because the person I addressed is identifying himself with the body. It is his ego that is reacting to the truth. It is also his choice how he will respond to the situation and that has nothing to do with me. If I fulfill the 3 criteria, I will not suffer from my actions. If I would suffer, then there is something in me causing the suffering and that is an opportunity to see where work needs to be done. Fulfilling the 3 criteria also makes me act and talk in a different way. I will have a different frequency and this will make the other person respond differently, since higher vibrations are stronger than lower vibrations. I will also be aware of where a persons limit is for integrating the truth internally. To push this limit would serve no purpose. Sometimes it is just better to be silent.
If I see a beggar in the street and give him money out of compassion in order to reduce his suffering, is that really a good deed? If I would do such a thing it would actually mean that I am trying to remove the fruits of his actions, his chance to learn something in life and at the same time I would be rebelling against the Divine Law, which will have consequences for me. This is a truly egoistic action. This is a corrupt version of love. Real love would be to try to make the beggar understand why he suffers, the divine purpose of suffering and point the way to the path to the Eternal Source, which we all are a part of. We do not expect a child to know what we know from years and years of life-experience. Our responsibility would be to guide the child, but the mistakes the child may do, must be respected. Why can we not allow this child to grow as a human being in its own pace? That would in my mind be considered real love.
We all operate on different levels of awareness, since we are on different levels in our development. That is why the structure of this world works.
So, again, good is not necessarily good and bad is not necessarily bad. It is easy to fall in such a trap, if we are not careful. Humans are not perfect beings though, but it is our duty to realize what we are and what this place – this planet – really is. If we think we are fighting for something good, we have better be careful and ask ourselves what our motive really is, if it is for the greatest good of All, if our action is based on an absolute truth and if we are being led by our ego or our Soul – the real Self.
There is another very interesting aspect of the laws of karma, that has always fascinated me. When a bad cause produces a bad consequence, I suffer. You could say that I was doing something that was not allowed. If we try to see the divine meaning behind everything that occurs in life, everything we do could be considered a ritual. A sacred ritual. During this ritual, we will be guided.
I am sure that everybody at one point in their lives have had the sensation that nothing is going your way. You want to do a project and there is a lot of trouble, friction and struggle. There is huge adversity and we perceive it as if it is not meant to be. On the other hand we all have experienced moments in life when everything seemed to go our way. I have often felt a sensation of a flow and everything just fell into place. I hear stories like; “if that person would have walked in the door just one minute later, I would not be where and who I am today!”
There is something very important to learn from situations like these. If we are conscious about these events and understand the divine meaning behind them, we will understand – not just intellectually,1
but internally – that we can be guided to our task here on Earth. It is being provided to us by the Good One. So, the laws of karma is a powerful tool, which is given to us and it is important that we reveal this tool to ourselves, in order to use it the way we choose to.
Bibliography:
Be as you are, The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi,
Arkana Penguin books, 1985.
- I use the term intellect, because it is what people are used to, but the intellect should not be confused with reason or logic. In various traditions, the intellect is connected to “the eye of the heart,” which is the eternal essence in us, that makes us see, reach and comprehend the metaphysical realm, which belongs to the next world. [↩]