Does Karma Really Catch You?

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According to the science of karma, what counts the most is one’s inner intentions. Based on these intentions, good or bad karma get bound. And once, any karma is bound, it is bound to catch you. In next birth, one’s actions shall take place in line with the intentions made now, and accordingly, one will suffer consequent reactions for these actions that take place. Both action and reaction are a result of the karma that one has bound. This is how karma really catches each one.

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan explains, “The intention of giving happiness to others binds good karma and the intention of hurting others, will bind bad karmas. It is only through intent and not through action that karmas are bound.”

Whatever intents one makes today, in the next birth, his actions shall happen accordingly, and consequently he will receive reward or punishment for that action i.e. happiness or unhappiness through some instrument in the form of a person, a thing, a situation or an event.

If we later realize that we bound a bad karma, we do have recourse in the form of pratikraman, about which we shall talk a little later. But before that, let’s first understand through an example, how karma gets bound and how then does it catch you.

For example, suppose a business man is seen donating Rs. 10 lakh rupees to charity. This, as discussed above, is an action resulting from the karma bound in the past. He has no choice in this. The past karma has caught him; so whether he likes or does not like it right now, the good act of donating Rs. 10 lakh rupees happens by him.

However, if the business man’s deep inner intent at the time of donation is such, “Due to this local politician’s insistence, I am having to give Rs. 10 lakhs; of my own I would not have given a single rupee to these people”, then, based on this intent at the moment, he binds new karma which will give its result in the next life. In the next birth, he will now not be able to give a single rupee in charity! He may wonder why is it happening so; ‘I somehow cannot shell out a single rupee towards donation.’ The reason is, his past karma has caught him in this life.

On the other side, a young student donates 500 Rupees. But while he donates, internally he has the intent, “I wish I could give them 1 crore. Right now, I don’t have enough money, but when I do, I will definitely give them.” With this intent, he unknowingly binds a karma, which in effect will lead to this student giving Rs. 1 crore in charity with great pleasure, in his next birth. Consequently, people will praise him and applaud him for the good work he’s done! This is the reward he receives in reaction.

Thus, the karma does really catch us all. It is Nature’s law, whatever you sow, so shall you reap!

So, our intentions at any point of time are very important. Day and night, every moment of our life, we continue to bind karma based on the intention at that moment of time. If the intention is good, we bind good karma, the reward of which also shall be good; and if the intention is bad, we will bind bad karma, the punishment of which shall be severe. Good karma gives us happiness and bad ones give us sadness and sorrow.

Therefore, we should always remain careful that we never spoil our intentions on any occasion.

For this, every morning, we should make it a practice to pray to God,

“Dear God, May no living being be caused the slightest hurt through any of my thoughts, words or actions.”

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Repeat this at least five times every day, as a loving and sincere heartfelt wish, and see how your life takes a gradual shift towards the good!

Further, every night, before you go to sleep, make it a practice to check through your day’s happenings and see if you have caused hurt to anybody. Do an honest evaluation and you will find there have been several instances of the kind.

We all make mistakes. But now, for each such instance, we will do pratikraman.

Pratikraman means remembering each mistake that happened by us, and with true repentance, we seek forgiveness from God saying,

“Dear God, I made so and so mistake. I am sorry. Please forgive me and give me strength so that I never repeat this mistake.”

Doing so, you wash away the bad karma that you had bound by hurting someone. The earlier you wash away your bad karma, the better it is as it cleans up the whole karma.

If we do pratikraman the very moment we cause hurt or harm to someone i.e. “shoot on sight”, the seeds of karma will not come into fruition in the future. But at least every night, we shall try and remember every wrong deed that may have happened by us through the past 24 hours, and wash it for sure; it will save us of its liability.

According to Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, “The karmas from the previous life were in the form of a plan, as though designed on a piece of paper. Now when it materializes and comes into fruition, it is called Prarabdh (Fate).”

To summarize,

Karma that were bound in previous life shall unfold in this life. When events happen in our life, many a times we are taken by surprise as to why such a thing happened in my life. The fact is that it is our own karma (past deed) that’s paying off today. Whatever pain we may have given to others in past birth, we shall get it back in return with added interest in this birth. Just like if we forgot to pay Rs. 10 lakhs to a person or happened to steal that amount from someone in our past birth, then in this birth we will have to return it to him with compounded interest! Nature will not spare us. Nature’s law is precise and just. It does justice always! Therefore, we need to be very careful that we don’t cause any inconvenience, pain, or grief to anyone. It is best to repent or re-pay our debts before we die, because if we forget, then karmas shall really catch us in the next birth!