“The Lord with Peter, James and John were in Jerusalem; it was the Sabbath day. And as they walked along the way they saw a man who could not see; he had been blind from birth. And Peter said, Lord, if disease and imperfections all are caused by sin, who was the sinner in this case? the parents or the man himself?
And Jesus said, Afflictions all are partial payments on a debt, or debts, that have been made. There is a law of recompense that never fails, and it is summarized in that true rule of life: Whatsoever man shall do to any other man some other man will do to him. In this we find the meaning of the Jewish law, expressed concisely in the words, Tooth for a tooth; life for a life. He who shall injure any one in thought, or word, or deed, is judged a debtor to the law, and some one else shall, likewise, injure him in thought, or word or deed. And he who sheds the blood of any man will come upon the time when his blood shall be shed by man.
Affliction is a prison cell in which a man must stay until he pays his debts unless a master sets him free that he may have a better chance to pay his debts. Affliction is a certain sign that one has debts to pay. Behold this man! Once in another life he was a cruel man, and in a cruel way destroyed the eyes of one, a fellow man. The parents of this man once turned their faces on a blind and helpless man, and drove him from their door.
(Aquarian Gospel 138:1-13)
- Afflictions all are partial payments on a debt, or debts, that have been made.
Some troubles are full payment and some are partial. But when it is over, the karmic debt has been reduced. That is the important thing.
“There is a law of recompense that never fails, and it is summarized in that true rule of life: Whatsoever man shall do to any other man some other man will do to him.”
- There is a law of recompense that never fails, and it is summarized in that true rule of life: Whatsoever man shall do to any other man some other man will do to him.
Exactly what is done shall be done to us: the very same thing. If I steal, I will be stolen from; I will not just lose something of equal value to what I stole. Another human being will take it from me. This is very important. It is exact, like an echo: only what you say will come back to you, not something merely similar. Sometimes more than one karma will be be neutralized by a single thing that will reflect their general character. But, as I say, it is mostly an exact reaction.
And let us never forget that karma is not punishment or retribution but a simple reaction. Negative karma and positive karma are not bad and good, they are just of differing polarities, movements or mechanisms of cosmic energy. That is why karma is so inevitable. It is universal life force manifesting in our life sphere.
God is not dispensing our karma, nor are there any mythical “Lords of Karma” like a court of judges administering “justice.” Karma is always just, because it is simple cosmic reaction, nothing more.
We always want some god or angel or someone to be spanking us or coddling us. It is not so. True religion is intelligent, even intellectual. False religion is emotional and therefore egocentric. We want God to be smiling on us, but why would he bother? Do you and I get angry if an ant or a spider does something out in our backyard? Never. Why, then, would the infinite, all-powerful God? God being pleased and displeased is an outrageous myth. We must avoid putting human labels on divine action and divine labels on human action. Clear-sightedness is absolutely essential for living the holy life.
- In this we find the meaning of the Jewish law, expressed concisely in the words, Tooth for a tooth; life for a life. He who shall injure any one in thought, or word, or deed, is judged a debtor to the law, and some one else shall, likewise, injure him in thought, or word or deed. And he who sheds the blood of any man will come upon the time when his blood shall be shed by man.
Here we see that karma is precise. And that is because it is perfect like everything else God has projected for our evolution.
- Affliction is a prison cell in which a man must stay until he pays his debts unless a master sets him free that he may have a better chance to pay his debts. Affliction is a certain sign that one has debts to pay.
“Nothing arises in our life that does not have a cause.”A master can alter or even wipe out our karma, but only for a higher purpose: to free us and make us able to either repay or expunge our karmic debts on our own. This is a step toward our becoming masters ourselves. As the last sentence says: difficulties and troubles are infallible signs of the presence of karma. Nothing arises in our life that does not have a cause, and that cause is almost always karma.
- Behold this man! Once in another life he was a cruel man, and in a cruel way destroyed the eyes of one, a fellow man. The parents of this man once turned their faces on a blind and helpless man, and drove him from their door.
Here we find out exactly why the man was born blind and why his parents had a blind child. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That is karma. I learned that principle in junior-high science class, but only the Bhagavad Gita made it known to me as a force in everyone’s life.
Further Reading: