Hi Michael
It was really touching to receive that note from you. Karma theory I was taught since childhood is as simple as you reap as you sow. But you may not know your fruits right away. Maybe you goofed with the sowing now but you’ll know the results later. What we see now could be the results from this birth or even earlier births. The time frame is what is not known to us. Yet as Lord Krishna tells us about "Karma Phala Tyaga" meaning give up or sacrifice (tyaga) the fruits (phala) of your action (karma). Let not the fruit of the action be your motivation nor the unattachment to the fruit be the cause of inaction!
And all the events in our life do have their own time cycle, don’t they? We have our people predicting cycles of stocks; cant we take stock of our own lives?
It is really quite simple….but if most of the men did realize it, we wouldn’t be having all the unpleasant actions….war, terrorist attacks…..
What you have been seeing Michael is what each one of us do see in our lives sometime or the other. Years ago, when I lost my parents one after the other, the situation was somewhat like this. My father passed away, 2 weeks later my mother (who was on a pacemaker) was hospitalized. My brother had an attack of typhoid, his wife was unwell too. My two year old daughter was unwell and was suspected of having pneumonia. I had to leave her with my husband and parents-in-law while I attended to my mother. There was one particular instant when I wanted to talk to someone; I could not reach my husband (no mobile phones then) and finally found a pathologist friend. My mother passed away later and things have taken course and I have steadied myself. But the point is, while having bouts of bad karma, somewhere you do see light…keep that flame alive.
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Michael Norwood:
Sounds like you have been through the mill lately, Radha. My hat’s off to you.
And indeed, Lord Khrishna’s words about not being attached to the fruit of action are one of my favorite in the Bhagavad Gita (and of all time). The entire meaning of those words to me speaks of Presence – being where you’re at now, doing what you have to do, and getting the most out of it all.
"Intention" is a wonderful word that puts it all into perspective for me – we indeed should have an "Intention" for the direction we want things to take, then just do what we have to do, and readjust our compasses later.
Here now, but forever Onward!