GNANY YOGA/PART 11
THE ELEVENTH LESSON.
THE LAW OF KARMA.
"Karma"
is a Sanscrit term for that great Law known to Western thinkers as Spiritual
Cause and Effect, or Causation. It relates to the complicated affinities for
either good or evil that have been acquired by the soul throughout its many
incarnations. These affinities manifest as characteristics enduring from one
incarnation to another, being added to here, softened or altered there, but
always pressing forward for expression and manifestation. And, so, it follows
that what each one of us is in this life depends upon is what we have been and
how we have acted in our past lives.
Throughout
the operations of the Law of Karma the manifestation of Perfect Justice is
apparent. We are not punished for our sins, as the current
beliefs have it, but instead we are punished by our sins. We
are not rewarded for our good acts, but we received our
reward through and by characteristics, qualities, affinities,
etc., acquired by reason of our having performed these good acts in previous
lives. We are our own judges and executioners. In our present lives we are
storing up good or bad Karma which will stick to us closely, and which will
demand expression and manifestation in lives to come. When we fasten around
ourselves the evil of bad Karma, we have taken to shelter a monster which will
gnaw into our very vitals until we shake him off by developing opposite
qualities. And when we draw to ourselves the good Karma of Duty well performed,
kindness well expressed, and Good Deeds freely performed without hope of
reward, then do we weave for ourselves the beautiful garments which we are
destined to wear upon the occasion of our future lives.
The
Yogi Teachings relating to the Law of Karma do not teach us that Sin is an
offense against the Power which brought us into being, so much as it is an
offense against ourselves. We cannot injure the Absolute, nor harm It in any
way. But we may harm each other, and in so doing harm ourselves. The Yogis
teach that Sin is largely a matter of ignorance and misunderstanding of our
true nature, and that the lesson must be well learned until we are able to see
the folly and error of our former course, and thus are able to remedy our past
errors and to avoid their recurrence. By Karma the effects arising from our
sins cling to us, until we become sick and weary of them, and seek their cause
in our hearts. When we have discovered the evil cause of these effects, we
learn to hate it and tear it from us as a foul thing, and are thence evermore
relieved of it.
The
Yogis view the sinning soul as the parent does the child who will persist in
playing with forbidden things. The parent cautions the child against playing
with the stove, but still the child persists in its disobedience, and sooner or
later receives a burn for its meddling. The burn is not a punishment for
the disobedience (although it may seem so to it) but comes in obedience to a
natural law which is invariable. To child finds out that stoves and burns are
connected, and begins to see some sense and reason in the admonitions of the
parent. The love of the parent sought to save the child the pain of the burn,
and yet the child-nature persisted in experimenting, and was taught the lesson.
But the lesson once thoroughly learned, it is not necessary to forbid the child
the stove, for it has learned the danger for itself and thereafter avoids it.
And
thus it is with the human soul passing on from one life to another. It learns
new lessons, gathers new experiences, and learns to recognize the pain that
invariably comes from Wrong Action, and the Happiness that invariably comes from
Right Action. As it progresses it learns how hurtful certain courses of action
are, and like the burnt child it avoids them thereafter.
If
we will but stop to consider for a moment the relative degrees of temptation to
us and to others, we may see the operations of past Karma in former lives. Why
is it that this thing is "no temptation" to you, while it is the
greatest temptation to another. Why is it that certain things do not seem to
have any attraction for him, and yet they attract you so much that you have to
use all of your will power to resist them? It is because of the Karma in your
past lives. The things that do not now tempt you, have been outlived in some
former life, and you have profited by your own experiences, or those of others,
or else through some teaching given you by one who had been attracted to you by
your unfolding consciousness of Truth.
We
are profiting to-day by the lessons of our past lives. If we have learned them
well we are receiving the benefit, while if we have turned our backs on the
words of wisdom offered us, or have refused to learn the lesson perfectly, we
are compelled to sit on the same old school-benches and hear the same old
lesson repeated until it is fairly driven into our consciousness. We wonder why
it is that other persons can perform certain evil acts that seem so repulsive
to us, and are apt to pride ourselves upon our superior virtue. But those who
know, realize that their unfortunate brethren have not paid sufficient
attention to the lesson of the past, and are having it repeated to them in a
more drastic form this time. They know that the virtuous ones are simply
reaping the benefit of their own application in the past, but that their lesson
is not over, and that unless they advance and hold fast to that which they have
attained, as well, they will be outstripped by many of those whose failure they
are now viewing with wonder and scorn.
It
is hard for us to fully realize that we are what we are because of our past
experiences. It is difficult for us to value the experiences that we are now
going through, because we do not fully appreciate the value of bitter
experiences once lived out and outlived. Let us look back over the experiences
of this present life, for instance. How many bitter episodes are there which we
wish had never happened, and how we wish we could tear them out of our
consciousness. But we do not realize that from these same bitter experiences
came knowledge and wisdom that we would not part with under any circumstances.
And yet if we were to tear away from us the cause of these benefits, we would
tear away the benefits also, and would find ourselves back just where we were
before the experience happened to us. What we would like to do is to hold on to
the benefits that came from the experience—-the knowledge and wisdom that were
picked from the tree of pain. But we cannot separate the effect from the cause
in this way, and must learn to look back upon these bitter experiences as the
causes from which our present knowledge, wisdom and attainment proceeded. Then
may we cease to hate these things, and to see that good may come from evil,
under the workings of the Law.
And
when we are able to do this, we shall be able to regard the painful experiences
of our present day as the inevitable outcome of causes away back in our past,
but which will work surely toward increased knowledge, wisdom and attainment,
if we will but see the Good underlying the working of the Law. When we fall in
with the working of the Law of Karma we recognize its pain not as an injustice
or punishment, but as the beneficent operation of a Law which, although
apparently working Evil, has for its end and aim Ultimate Good.
Many
object to the teachings of the Law of Karma by saying that the experiences of
each life not being remembered, must be useless and without value. This is a
very foolish position to take concerning the matter. These experiences although
not fully remembered, are not lost to us at all—they are made a part of the
material of which our minds are composed. They exist in the form of feelings,
characteristics, inclinations, likes and dislikes, affinities, attractions,
repulsions, etc., etc., and are as much in evidence as are the experiences of
yesterday which are fresh in our memory. Look back over your present life, and
try to remember the experiences of the past years. You will find that you
remember but few of the events of your life. The pressing and constant
experiences of each of the days that you have lived have been, for the most
part, forgotten. Though these experiences may have seemed very vivid and real
to you when they occurred, still they have faded into nothingness now, and they
are to all intents and purposes lost to you. But are they
lost? Not at all. You are what you are because of the results of these experiences.
Your character has been moulded and shaped, little by little, by these
apparently forgotten pains, pleasures, sorrows and happinesses. This trial
strengthened you along certain lines; that one changed your point of view and
made you see things with a broader sweep of vision. This grief caused you to
feel the pain of others; that disappointment spurred you on to new endeavors.
And each and every one of them left a permanent mark upon your personality—upon
your character. All men are what they are by reason of what they have lived
through and out. And though these happenings, scenes, circumstances,
occurrences, experiences, have faded from the memory, their effects are
indelibly imprinted upon the fabric of the character, and the man of to-day is
different from what he would have been had the happening or experience not
entered into his life.
And
this same rule applies to the characteristics brought over from past
incarnations. You have not the memory of the experiences, but you have the
fruit in the shape of "characteristics," tastes, inclinations, etc.
You have a tendency toward certain things, and a distaste for others. Certain
things attract, while others repel you. All of these things are the result of
your experiences in former incarnations. Your very taste and inclination toward
occult studies which has caused you to read these lessons is your legacy from
some former life in which some one spoke a word or two to you regarding the
subject, and attracted your interest and desire. You learned some little about
the subject then—perhaps much—and developed a desire for more knowledge along
these lines, which manifesting in your present life has brought you in contact
with further instruction. The same inclination will lead to further advancement
in this life, and still greater opportunities in future incarnations. Nearly
every one who reads these lines has felt that much of this occult instruction
imparted is but a "re-learning" of something previously known,
although many of the things taught have never been heard before in this life.
You pick up a book and read something, and know at once that it is so, because
in some vague way you have a consciousness of having studied and worked out the
problem in some past period of your lives. All this is the working of the Law
of Karma, which caused you to attract that for which you have an affinity, and
which also causes others to be attracted to you.
Many
are the reunions of people who have been related to each other in previous
lives. The old loves, and old hates work out their Karmic results in our lives.
We are bound to those whom we have loved, and also to those whom we may have
injured. The story must be worked out to the end, although a knowledge of the
Law undoubtedly relieves one of many entangling attachments and Karmic
relationships, by pointing out the nature of the relation, and enabling one to
free himself mentally from the bond, which process tends to dissolve much of
the Karmic entanglements.
Life
is a great school for the learning of lessons. It has many grades, many
classes, many scales of progress. And the lessons must be learned whether we
will or no. If we refuse or neglect to learn the lesson we are sent back to
accomplish the task, again and again, until the lesson is finally learned.
Nothing once learned is ever forgotten entirely. There is an indelible imprint
of the lesson in our character, which manifests as predispositions, tastes,
inclinations, etc. All that goes to make up that which we call
"Character" is the workings of the Law of Karma. There is no such
thing as Chance. Nothing ever "happens." All is regulated by the Law
of Cause and Effect or Karma. As a man sows so shall he reap, in a literal
sense. You are what you are to-day, by reason of what you were in your last life.
And in your next life you will be what you are making of yourself to-day. You
are your own judge, and executioner—your own bestower of rewards. But the Love
of the Absolute is ever working to lead you upward to the Light, and to open
your soul to that knowledge that, in the words of the Yogis, "burns up
Karma," and enables you to throw off the burden of Cause and Effect that
you have been carrying around with you, and which has weighted you down.
In
the Fourteen Lessons we quoted from Mr. Berry Benson, a writer in the Century
Magazine for May, 1894. The quotation fits so beautifully into this
place, that we venture to reproduce it here once more, with your permission. It
reads as follows:
"A
little boy went to school. He was very little. All that he knew he had drawn in
with his mother's milk. His teacher (who was God) placed him in the lowest
class, and gave him these lessons to learn: Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt do
no hurt to any living thing. Thou shalt not steal. So the man did not kill; but
he was cruel, and he stole. At the end of the day (when his beard was gray—when
the night was come) his teacher (who was God) said: Thou hast learned not to
kill, but the other lessons thou hast not learned. Come back tomorrow.
"On
the morrow he came back a little boy. And his teacher (who was God) put him in
a class a little higher, and gave him these lessons to learn: Thou shalt do no
hurt to any living thing. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not cheat. So the
man did no hurt to any living thing; but he stole and cheated. And at the end
of the day (when his beard was gray—when the night was come) his teacher (who
was God) said: Thou hast learned to be merciful. But the other lessons thou
hast not learned. Come back tomorrow.
"Again,
on the morrow, he came back, a little boy. And his teacher (who was God) put
him in a class yet a little higher, and gave him these lessons to learn: Thou
shalt not steal. Thou shalt not cheat. Thou shalt not covet. So the man did not
steal; but he cheated and he coveted. And at the end of the day (when his beard
was gray—when the night was come) his teacher (who was God) said: Thou hast
learned not to steal. But the other lessons thou hast not learned. Come back,
my child, tomorrow.
"This
is what I have read in the faces of men and women, in the book of the world,
and in the scroll of the heavens, which is writ with stars."
Under
the operation of the Law of Karma every man is master of his own destiny—he
rewards himself—he punishes himself—he builds, tears down and develops his
character, always, however, under the brooding influence of the Absolute which
is Love Infinite and which is constantly exerting the upward spiritual urge,
which is drawing the soul toward its ultimate haven of rest. Man must, and
does, work out his own salvation and destiny, but the upward urge is always
there—never tiring—never despairing—knowing always that Ultimate Victory
belongs to the soul.
Under
the Law of Karma every action, yea, every thought as well, has its Karmic
effect upon the future incarnations of the soul. And, not exactly in the nature
of punishment or rewards, in the general acceptation of the term, but as the
invariable operation of the Law of Cause and Effect. The thoughts of a person
are like seeds which seek to press forward into growth, bud, blossom and fruit.
Some spring into growth in this life, while others are carried over into future
lives. The actions of this life may represent only the partial growth of the
thought seed, and future lives may be necessary for its full blossoming and
fruition. Of course, the individual who understands the Truth, and who has
mentally divorced himself from the fruits of his actions—who has robbed
material Desire of its vital force by seeing it as it is, and not as a part of
his Real Self—his seed-thoughts do not spring into blossom and fruit in future
lives, for he has killed their germ. The Yogis express this thought by the
illustration of the baked-seeds. They show their pupils that while ordinary
seeds sprout, blossom and bear fruit, still if one bakes the seeds their
vitality is gone, and while they may serve the purposes of a nourishing meal
still they can never cause sprout, blossom or fruit. Then the pupil is
instructed in the nature of Desire, and shown how desires invariably spring
into plant, blossom and fruit, the life of the person being the soil in which
they flourish. But Desires understood, and set off from the Real Man, are akin
to baked-seeds—they have been subjected to the heat of spiritual wisdom and are
thus robbed of their vitality, and are unable to bear fruit. In this way the
understood and mastered Desire bears no Karmic fruit of future action.
The
Yogis teach that there are two great principles at work in the matter of Karmic
Law affecting the conditions of rebirth. The first principle is that whereby
the prevailing desires, aspirations, likes, and dislikes, loves and hates,
attractions and repulsions, etc., press the soul into conditions in which these
characteristics may have a favorable and congenial soil for development. The
second principle is that which may be spoken of as the urge of the unfolding
Spirit, which is always urging forward toward fuller expression, and the
breaking down of confining sheaths, and which thus exerts a pressure upon the
soul awaiting reincarnation which causes it to seek higher environments and
conditions than its desires and aspiration, as well as its general
characteristics, would demand. These two apparently conflicting (and yet
actually harmonious) principles acting and reacting upon each other, determine
the conditions of rebirth, and have a very material effect upon the Karmic Law.
One's life is largely a conflict between these two forces, the one tending to
hold the soul to the present conditions resulting from past lives, and the
other ever at work seeking to uplift and elevate it to greater heights.
The
desires and characteristics brought over from the past lives, of course, seek
fuller expression and manifestation upon the lines of the past lives. These
tendencies simply wish to be let alone and to grow according to their own laws
of development and manifestation. But the unfolding Spirit, knowing that the
soul's best interests are along the lines of spiritual unfoldment and growth,
brings a steady pressure to bear, life after life, upon the soul, causing it to
gradually kill out the lower desires and characteristics, and to develop
qualities which tend to lead it upward instead of allowing it to remain on its
present level, there to bring to blossom and fruit many low thoughts and
desires. Absolute Justice reigns over the operations of the Law of Karma, but
back of that and superior even to its might is found the Infinite Love of the
absolute which tends to Redeem the race. It is that love that is back of all
the upward tendencies of the soul, and which we all feel within our inner
selves in our best moments. The light of the Spirit (Love) is ever there.
Our
relationship to others in past lives has its effect upon the working of the Law
of Karma. If in the past we have formed attachments for other individuals,
either through love or hate; either by kindness or cruelty; these attachments
manifest in our present life, for these persons are bound to us, and we to
them, by the bonds of Karma, until the attachment is worn out. Such people will
in the present life have certain relationships to us, the object of which is
the working out of the problems in which we are mutually concerned, the
adjustment of relationship, the "squaring up" of accounts, the
development of both. We are apt to be placed in a position to receive hurts
from those whom we have hurt in past lives, and this not through the idea of
revenge, but by the inexorable working out of the Law of Compensation in Karmic
adjustments. And when we are helped, comforted and receive favors from those
who we helped in past lives, it is not merely a reward, but the operation of
the same law of Justice. The person who hurts us in this way may have no desire
to do so, and may even be distressed because he is used as an instrument in
this way, but the Karmic Law places him in a position where he unwittingly and
without desire acts so that you receive pain through him. Have you not felt
yourselves hurting another, although you had no desire and intention of so
doing, and, in fact, were sorely distressed because you could not prevent the
pain? This Is the operation of Karma. Have you not found yourself placed where
you unexpectedly were made the bestower of favors upon some almost unknown
persons? This is Karma. The Wheel turns slowly, but it makes the complete
circle.
Karma
is the companion law to Metempsychosis. The two are inextricably connected, and
their operations are closely interwoven. Constant and unvarying in operation,
Karma manifests upon and in worlds, planets, races, nations, families and
persons Everywhere in space is the great law in operation in some form. The
so-called mechanical operations called Causation are as much a phase of Karma
as is the highest phases manifest on the higher planes of life, far beyond our
own. And through it all is ever the urge toward perfection—the upward movement
of all life. The Yogi teachings regard the Universe as a mighty whole, and the
Law of Karma as the one great law operating and manifesting through that whole.
How
different is the workings of this mighty Law from the many ideas advanced by
man to account for the happenings of life. Mere Chance is no explanation, for
the careful thinker must inevitably come to the conclusion that in an Universe
governed by law, there can be no room for Chance. And to suppose that all rewards
and punishments are bestowed by a personal deity, in answer to prayers,
supplications, good behavior, offerings, etc., is to fall back into the
childhood stage of the race thought. The Yogis teach that the sorrow, suffering
and affliction witnessed on all sides of us, as well as the joy, happiness and
blessings also in evidence, are not caused by the will or whim of some
capricious deity to reward his friends and punish his enemies—but by the
working of an invariable Law which metes out to each his measure of good and
ill according to his Karmic attachments and relationships.
Those
who are suffering, and who see no cause for their pain, are apt to complain and
rebel when they see others of no apparent merit enjoying the good things of
life which have been denied their apparently more worthy brethren. The churches
have no answer except "It is God's will," and that "the Divine
motive must not be questioned." These answers seem like mockery,
particularly when the idea of Divine Justice is associated with the teaching.
There is no other answer compatible with Divine Justice other than the Law of
Karma, which makes each person responsible for his or her happiness or misery.
And there is nothing so stimulating to one as to know that he has within
himself the means to create for himself newer and better conditions of life and
environment. We are what we are to-day by reason of what we were in our
yesterdays. We will be in our tomorrows that which we have started into
operation to-day. As we sow in this life, so shall we reap in the next—we are
now reaping that which we have sown in the past. St. Paul voiced a world truth
when he said: "Brethren, be not deceived. God is not mocked, for
whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap."
The
teachers divide the operation of Karma into three general classes, as follows:
(1) The Karmic manifestations which are now under way in our lives, producing
results which are the effects of causes set into motion in our past lives. This
is the most common form, and best known phase of Karmic manifestation.
(2)
The Karma which we are now acquiring and storing up by reason of our actions,
deeds, thoughts and mental and spiritual relationships. This stored up Karma
will spring into operation in future lives, when the body and environments
appropriate for its manifestation presents itself or is secured; or else when
other Karma tending to restrict its operations is removed. But one does not
necessarily have to wait until a future life in order to set into operation and
manifestation the Karma of the present life. For there come times in which
there being no obstructing Karma brought over from a past life, the present
life Karma may begin to manifest.
(3)
The Karma brought over from past incarnations, which is not able to manifest at
the present time owing to the opposition presented by other Karma of an
opposite nature, serves to hold the first in check. It is a well known physical
law, which likewise manifests on the mental plane, that two opposing forces
result in neutralization, that is, both of the forces are held in check. Of
course, though, a more powerful Karma may manage to operate, while a weaker is
held in check by it.
Not
only have individuals their own Karma, but families, races, nations and worlds
have their collective Karma. In the cases of races, if the race Karma generated
in the past be favorable on the whole, the race flourishes and its influence
widens. If on the contrary its collective Karma be bad, the race gradually
disappears from the face of the earth, the souls constituting it separating
according to their Karmic attractions, some going to this race and some to
another. Nations are bound by their Karma, as any student of history may
perceive if he studies closely the tides of national progress or decline.
The
Karma of a nation is made up of the collective Karma of the individuals
composing it, so far as their thoughts and acts have to do with the national
spirit and acts. Nations as nations cease to exist, but the souls of the
individuals composing them still live on and make their influence felt in new
races, scenes and environments. The ancient Egyptians, Persians, Medes,
Chaldeans, Romans, Grecians and many other ancient races have disappeared, but
their reincarnating souls are with us to-day. The modern revival of Occultism
is caused by an influx of the souls of these old peoples pouring in on the
Western worlds.
The
following quotation from The Secret Doctrine, that remarkable piece
of occult literature, will be interesting at this point:
"Nor
would the ways of Karma be inscrutable were men to work in union and harmony
instead of disunion and strife. For our ignorance of those ways—which one
portion of mankind calls the ways of Providence, dark and intricate, while
another sees in them the action of blind fatalism, and a third simple Chance
with neither gods nor devils to guide them—would surely disappear if we would
but attribute all these to their correct cause. With right knowledge, or at any
rate with a confident conviction that our neighbors will no more work harm to
us than we would think of harming them, two-thirds of the world's evil would
vanish into thin air. Were no man to hurt his brother, Karma-Nemesis would have
neither cause to work for, nor weapons to act through … We cut these numerous
windings in our destinies daily with our own hands, while we imagine that we
are pursuing a track on the royal road of respectability and duty, and then
complain of those ways being so intricate and so dark. We stand bewildered
before the mystery of our own making and the riddles of life that we will not
solve, and then accuse the great Sphinx of devouring us. But verily there is
not an accident in our lives, not a misshapen day or a misfortune, that could
not be traced back to our own doings in this or another life … Knowledge of
Karma gives the conviction that if—
'Virtue
in distress and vice in triumph
Makes atheists of
Mankind,'
it
is only because that mankind has ever shut its eyes to the great truth that man
is himself his own savior as his own destroyer; that he need not accuse heaven,
and the gods, fates and providence, of the apparent injustice that reigns in
the midst of humanity. But let him rather remember that bit of Grecian wisdom
which warns man to forbear accusing THAT which 'Just though mysterious, leads
us on unerring Through ways unmarked from guilt to punishment'—which are now
the ways and the high road on which move onward the great European nations. The
Western Aryans have every nation and tribe like their eastern brethren of the
fifth race, their Golden and their Iron ages, their period of comparative
irresponsibility, or the Satya age of purity, while now several of them have
reached their Iron Age, the Kali Yuga, an age black with horrors.
This state will last … until we begin acting from within instead of ever
following impulses from without. Until then the only palliative is union and
harmony—a Brotherhood in actu and altruism not
simply in name."
Edwin
Arnold, in his wonderful poem, "The Light of Asia," which tells the
story of the Buddha, explains the doctrine of Karma from the Buddhist
standpoint. We feel that our students should become acquainted with this view,
so beautifully expressed, and so we herewith quote the passages referred to:
"Karma—all
that total of a soul Which is the things it did, the thoughts it had, The
'self' it wove with woof of viewless time Crossed on the warp invisible of
acts.
* *
* * *
"What
hath been bringeth what shall be, and is, Worse—better—last for first and first
for last; The angels in the heavens of gladness reap Fruits of a holy
past.
"The
devils in the underworlds wear out Deeds that were wicked in an age gone
by. Nothing endures: fair virtues waste with time, Foul sins grow
purged thereby.
"Who
toiled a slave may come anew a prince For gentle worthiness and merit won;
Who ruled a king may wander earth in rags For things done and undone.
"Before beginning, and without an end, As space eternal
and as surety sure, Is fixed a Power divine which moves to good, Only
its laws endure.
"It will not be contemned of any one: Who thwarts it
loses, and who serves it gains; The hidden good it pays with peace and bliss, The
hidden ill with pains.
"It
seeth everywhere and marketh all: Do right—it recompenseth! Do one
wrong—The equal retribution must be made, Though DHARMA tarry long.
"It knows not wrath nor pardon; utter-true Its measures
mete, its faultless balance weighs; Times are as naught, to-morrow it will
judge, Or after many days.
"By this the slayer's knife did stab himself; The unjust
judge hath lost his own defender; The false tongue dooms its lie; the
creeping thief And spoiler rob, to render.
"Such is the law which moves to righteousness, Which
none at last can turn aside or stay; The heart of it is love, the end of
it Is peace and consummation sweet. Obey!
* * * * *
"The books say well, my brothers! each man's life The
outcome of his former living is; The bygone wrongs bring forth sorrow and
woes, The bygone right breeds bliss.
"That which ye sow ye reap. See yonder fields! The sesamum was
sesamum, the corn Was corn. The silence and the darkness knew; So is
a man's fate born.
"He cometh, reaper of the things he sowed, Sesamum,
corn, so much cast in past birth; And so much weed and poison-stuff, which
mar Him and the aching earth.
"If he shall labor rightly, rooting these, And planting
wholesome seedlings where they grew, Fruitful and fair and clean the
ground shall be, And rich the harvest due.
"If he who liveth, learning whence woe springs, Endureth
patiently, striving to pay His utmost debt for ancient evils done In
love and truth always;
If making none to lack, he thoroughly purge The lie and lust
of self forth from his blood; Suffering all meekly, rendering for
offence Nothing but grace and good:
"If he shall day by day dwell merciful, Holy and just
and kind and true; and rend Desire from where it clings with bleeding
roots, Till love of life have end:
"He—dying—leaveth as the sum of him A life-count closed,
whose ills are dead and quit, Whose good is quick and mighty, far and
near, So that fruits follow it.
"No need hath such to live as ye name life; That which
began in him when he began Is finished: he hath wrought the purpose
through Of what did make him man.
"Never shall yearnings torture him, nor sins Stain him,
nor ache of earthly joys and woes Invade his safe eternal peace; nor
deaths And lives recur. He goes
"Unto NIRVANA. He is one with Life Yet lives not. He is
blest, ceasing to be. OM, MANI PADME OM! the dewdrop slips Into the
shining sea!
"This is the doctrine of the Karma. Learn! Only when all
the dross of sin is quit, Only when life dies like a white flame
spent. Death dies along with it."
And
so, friends, this is a brief account of the operations of the Law of Karma. The
subject is one of such wide scope that the brief space at our disposal enables
us to do little more than to call your attention to the existence of the Law,
and some of its general workings. We advise our students to acquaint themselves
thoroughly with what has been written on this subject by ourselves and others.
In our first series of lessons—the "Fourteen Lessons"—the
chapter or lesson on Spiritual Cause and Effect was devoted to the subject of
Karma. We advise our students to re-study it. We also suggest that Mr.
Sinnett's occult story entitled "Karma" gives its
readers an excellent idea of the actual working of Karma in the everyday lives
of people of our own times. We recommend the book to the consideration of our
students. It is published at a popular price, and is well worth the
consideration of every one interested in this wonderful subject of
Reincarnation and Karma.
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