How Can We Get Rid Of Our Past Bad Karmas?

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As per the law of karma the seeds of karma we’ve sown in past, we HAVE to bear the fruits of it

The fruits of karma are inevitable and we do not have any control over it. Everything that we see and experience in our life through the five senses, is the result of our past karmas only. When the time is up for maturation of karma, our past karma automatically comes into effect and gets discharged naturally. It is like we sow the seeds of mango; so when the time is right, the mangoes ripen automatically and show up on the tree.

This means, by Nature’s law, our past karmas, good or bad, come into effect naturally, they give the effect and shed off on their own.

But while bearing the fruits of our past bad karmas, we often sow new seeds of bad karma

While experiencing the effect of our past bad karmas, what generally happens is that because of our spiritual ignorance, we end up binding further bad karmas.

So when Nature facilitates everything that is required to rid us of our past bad karmas, we in turn harness dislike towards the situation that we are put in because of our past bad karmas,and/or hatred towards the person whom Nature nominated to give us the effect of our past bad karmas,

because of which, we sow further new seeds of bad karma, that will now mature in the next life, and bring us even more suffering than what we are going through right now.

Let us understand how this happens, by means of an example

Say, someone happens to insult us. Now, this is something that we can see and experience through our five senses, right? It means someone insulting us is the result of our past karma.

But when the insult happens, we feel within our mind, ‘“He is insulting me. Why is he doing this to me?’ We forget that the other person’s action is merely on account of ‘my unfolding karma’. In our past life, we ourselves have sowed this karma of insult. And today, when this person has come to deliver the fruit of our karma, we hold him responsible; and maybe even insult him badly in return.

So, while our past bad karma of insult was being settled, instead of getting rid of it by remaining calm and equanimous, we created a new karma, you see? It was already difficult to tolerate this one insult, yet we chose to continue the series of insults in future by insulting the other person in return, and thus creating a new and bigger bad karma this time.

Then we get puzzled and confused that my bad karmas are not ending. How do I get rid of them?

Whatever we experience in life is the result of our own past deeds, yet all our life, we keep complaining, cribbing and accusing others, “He did this to me and she did that to me.” If we understand the theory of karma in exactness, there remains no reason to accuse the other person. Try asking that person to verbally abuse you every morning. He would say, “Why should I?” This proves that we encounter insults only if there exists a past karma. Nobody will insult us otherwise.

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Our intention is what binds new karma

For instance, a butcher may be killing animals to sustain his family. But from within, if he is regretting his action of killing and is constantly repenting for it before God, he is actually getting rid of his past bad karmas due to which he is forced to do the killings today, and moreover, through his good intent of regret and repentance, he binds good karmas for future.

And seeing this butcher, suppose a passer-by curses him from within, wishing that he should be hung to death for killing innocent animals, then the passer-by binds new bad karmas. When we intend giving even the slightest pain to any living being, that karma will give us its fruit in the form of pain and suffering in next life .So if we cannot afford to suffer anymore, then we should maintain a deep inner intent to not hurt anybody through our thoughts, speech and actions. Every morning, please repeat the following sentence atleast five times, ‘May no living being be caused slightest hurt through my thoughts, my words or my actions.’ This will bring a good positive change in your life!

We can reverse our wrong intentions through ‘Pratikraman’ and thereby get rid of our sufferings

Our past karmas are the ‘echoes’ of our previous intentions. But by doing pratikraman, before whichever God we believe in, we can reverse the wrong intentions that we made.

Pratikraman is a 3 steps process of:

alochana (the process of heartily recalling or confessing our wrong intentions or actions),

pratikraman (asking for sincere apology with repentance for all our wrongdoings), and

pratyakhyan (resolving never to repeat these mistakes),

The best spiritual way to get rid of all our karmas is Self-Realization

The root cause of karma is our ignorance that, ‘I am this body and I did it.’ But when we attain Self-Realization, we realize that “I am really a pure Soul, whose function is to only see and know.” With this awareness, new karmas do not bind. And when all old karmas have exhausted, we become free from all karma forever.

So come, let’s go to the Living Gnani, and with His loving guidance, get rid of all our past karmas, with a smile on our face and equanimity in our heart. This is the best spiritual way to be liberated from all karma and its sufferings.

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