Karmanomics
Beijing, China, October 30, 2011.
Salaroche

 

Exchanging emails in some of those Internet forums can sometimes be an incentive to develop further some of the subjects discussed there. Recently I've been getting some responses to some of my emails that have later led me to widen the subjects in question in the form of short writings. "Karmanomics" is a case in point.

The initial prompt that led me to write these words came about a few nights ago when one of my correspondents asked me to explain why I travelled so much. My response to her was that I've been travelling for the past seven years or so for the simple reason that I haven't been able to find a suitable place to settle down in some sort of permanent way.

Another correspondent intervened in the thread saying that my condition of "Reluctant Nomad" was but another item in my Karmic baggage and that the best thing I could do was to try to enjoy my changing circumstances to the best of my abilities as, anyway, there was very little I could really do about it. To this I replied that she was perfectly right and that her statement could also be perfectly applicable to anyone in this world, including her.

But the subject of Karma kept bouncing in my mind for some time after, even making me remember the process that, in a way, that term has followed from the days back in the mid-sixties when it was first introduced to the western masses, to the point in which it now forms part of the popular vocabulary at the International level.

The way I see it, the Beatles, and particularly George Harrison, were quite influential in disseminating some aspects of Hindu culture across the Western world. For example, they were the ones who practically brought Ravi Shankar into the western music scene of the time and they were also the first ones, among western celebrities, to publicly engage in the practice of Yoga.

As it's very well known, the concept of Karma derives from Hinduism and from Buddhism, religions whose great majority of followers reside in Asia and whose fundamental precepts also include the concept of Reincarnation. The concept of Reincarnation and the concept of Karma are inseparable, as the former would never take place in the absence of the latter: Where there's no Karma there's no Reincarnation, and vice versa.

Within the Christian Religion, the concept of Karma is inapplicable, as, according to the canons of that religion, our souls incarnate in this world only once. Yet, there are now many Christians who use the term Karma when pointing at the good or bad luck that anyone else might have, thus showing that a good number of years have already gone by since the concept of karma transcended the confines of the religions in which it was originally conceived.

Yet, in spite of the popularity of that concept, I still considered that there were some details of it that perhaps were not as well known as the main concept itself. With this in mind, as I was on the Beijing Metro going back home a few nights ago, recalling in short flashes the three divisions of the term Karma, it occurred to me that those divisions could be explained in a rather simple, but clear manner, using some analogies by way of illustration.

So, when I got home later that night, I jotted down a couple of paragraphs that served as basis to complete this short writing the following day.

Before I begin developing the subject, however, I would like to make it clear that these words do not in any way pretend to be revelatory of anything new, nor do they pretend to be an incursion into deep esoteric matters, nor anything else of that sort. This is but a short exposition of a rather well known subject whose details recounted here may well be already known to you.

It is also worth clarifying that, even though this words were written from the perspective of religions and philosophies whose fundamental precepts include the concepts of Karma and Reincarnation, my intention in writing them was never to try to convince anyone of any alleged superiority that such religions or philosophies might have vis a vis any other religion or philosophy there may exist.

Having said that, here goes the analogy.

There are three kinds of Karma: Long-term Karma, short-term Karma, and Karma in process. By way of illustration, let's compare the general concept of Karma with a Bank loan.

1) Long-term Karma is the initial loan we got from the Universal Consciousness Bank (UCB) the moment we incarnated for the first time. That initial loan can only be repaid in full by giving back our consciousness, in the same state of natural purity in which it was first handed to us, to the UCB.

2) Short-term Karma is the interests that we have to pay to the UCB each time we reincarnate for the sole fact of continuing to use the consciousness given to us at the beginning of our evolutionary cycle. In Yoga lingo, this type of Karma is called Prarabdha.

3) The third kind of Karma are the additional charges we are applying in this life to our loan account through the different actions we engage in while incarnated. Many of this charges end up increasing our long-term loan, which translates into more interests to be paid later in the form of more incarnations or in the form of incarnations that are more burdensome.

There is also another kind of additional charges of consciousness (Karma) that we may incur in that don't increase the amount of our loan account because we pay them in "cash", that is, we pay them back during the same incarnation in which we make them. Those charges would be any actions we may commit, say, against someone else, but that bounce back to us with a similar intensity in this very same life.

To recap what has been said above, our long-term Karma is the long-term loan we initially got from the UCB the moment we first incarnated, our Prarabdha is the interests we have to pay to the UCB each time we reincarnate, and some (or many) of the actions we perform while incarnated are the additional charges we apply to our loan account.

But the UCB is not a bank ran by loan sharks, nor is it a Bank that would try to sell us any sub-prime life mortgages or any other kind of existential derivatives thereof. The UCB is not a for-profit entity, but a Bank with the purest and most selfless mission to promote the evolution of our consciousness.

As part of that reason, the UCB has mechanisms in place that allow us to make payments to reduce our long-term loan. The more payments we manage to make to our long-term account, the closer we get to the day in which we will be able to pay off our loan in full. To pay off our debt to the UCB in such a way would mean not having to pay any interests anymore, which would mean not having to reincarnate ever again.

There are different kinds of payments that can be made in different ways through the different channels. Some Religions and Philosophies represent the channels through which we can make payments, and their canons and prescriptions represent the different kinds of payments we can make and the different ways to make them.

But, at the bottom, in the long run, and always within the premises of Religions and Philosophies whose fundamental precepts include the concepts of Karma and Reincarnation, it all comes down to the same: Our Long-Term Account with the UCB will be settled for good only when we hand our consciousness, in the same state of natural purity in which it was handed to us on the moment we first incarnated, back to the UCB.

The only difference between the state of the consciousness that was handed to us at the beginning of our first incarnation and the state of the consciousness that we will hand back and the end of our last one, is the lack of lucidity from the part of the recipient who first received it and the absolute lucidity from the part of the recipient who will last hand it back.

In other words, the recipient who initially received the "Loan" didn't count among the attributes of their earthly envelope, neither with the capacity for understanding that we all presently have, nor, more importantly, with the capacity for introspection necessary for realizing what was the purpose or the ultimate goal for their travels across "time".

On the other hand, and at this point in our evolution, human beings do count with the necessary attributes to comprehend many things and, more importantly, we count with quite a powerful capacity for introspection, which seems to be an exclusive attribute of the Human Race in this world.

To say it differently, given the earthly attributes for acquiring consciousness at our disposal at this particular moment in time, not to take advantage of this incarnation to try and settle our account with the UBC in a total and permanent manner, would be something like a real cosmic waste of time.

Our Prarabdha, therefore, doesn't necessarily have to end up being just another interest payment on our long-term loan, and our long-term loan doesn't necessarily have to weigh on our shoulders for the rest of Eternity, just as any charges that we might make while incarnated don't necessarily have to accrue to our long-term account, given that there are ways to pay those charges in "cash".

In addition, the UCB is always ready to close our account at any moment. One single hit of Superconsciousness, for example, might end up being enough for the UCB to settle our account immediately and for the rest of Eternity.

In any case, and by way of a conclusion, the question of the laws that rule the three different kinds of Karma is not anything cast in stone in an indelible manner. An essential sample of the UCB's generosity is the clause that endows us with free will. Predestination exists, as we're all predestined to pay our loans in full one day. But whether that day comes tomorrow or within ten thousand years, that will depend largely on each of us.

Vita Mutatur, Non Tollitur.

Salaroche