Your Karma and Value System
Your Karma and Value System
I was raised in a culture that subscribes to the doctrine of ‘Karma’. “You reap where you sow”. This is a subtle, yet an important deviation from “You reap what you sow”.
Karma is not a zero sum game. Your good and bad actions and thoughts do not add up or deduct from a single reservoir. The good that you do in a particular area of your life will come back to you in that area of life. In the same vein, your inappropriate behavior or short comings in another area of your life will reflect in that area of your life.
The Karma based philosophy places tremendous responsibility on the individual.
You are directly and solely responsible for your actions and thoughts. No one will, nor can do much about what you have done, or are doing. The onus is on you!
It is therefore essential that you take control of your life and lead a life of virtue.
Karma transcends lifetimes. If the residue of your karmic deeds cannot adequately be compensated for in your lifetime (because you run out of time), you get a chance to fulfill it in the next life time and so on.
In addition to being an infinitely fair system of justice, this further increases your responsibility. The need to stick to your value system is absolute, lest, you carry negative karma to your next lifetime and have to deal with that burden through another birth!
In your next birth, the society that you are born into, the family, the time period, the legal system, the culture, the geography, etc will more than likely change. The type of job you will perform, your level of education, the opportunities, etc will more than likely be entirely different. You may therefore not expect to carry any knowledge of specific tools and technologies to that next birth.
What you will definitely carry forward are your tendencies and those are a derivative of your value system. Your value system is that single constant that sticks with you, lifetime after lifetime and that is the one constant that determines the kind of life you are going to lead. This is the same value system that gave you this birth and brought you to where you are at today.
Focus on your value system. Let it be laden with discipline, responsibility, maturity, morality, purity and the right way of living. Your value system is your only true asset.
