Three kinds of karma
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October 15, 2010
Let us understand this word karma. In Vedic tradition there is no good karma or bad karma. There is only karma. Whatever you are not able to make part of your life or your understanding is bad karma. Whatever you are able to assimilate and make part of you is good karma.
Understand this example:
Suppose you use a projector to project some scenes on a screen. Sometimes the projected light is too big, and only 70% of it falls on the screen, and 30% falls outside the screen. In this example, the screen is your experience about life, and the projector light is karma. Whatever is falling inside the screen is good karma, and whatever is falling outside the screen is bad karma. So now what do you need to do to make the whole thing into good karma? Just expand the size of the screen; expand your understanding about life.
Understand: whatever can fall inside your screen, whatever you are able to grasp, is called good karma. Whatever is falling beyond your screen, whatever you are not able to grasp as part of your life, is called bad karma. Now all you need to do is to integrate karma. As long there is good karma and bad karma, healing can never happen. There will be one part of karma constantly hurting you, haunting you.
If you increase your understanding about life, you will expand the screen. When all your life experiences come within the grasp of your understanding, then you will not call anything bad karma. That is what I call surrender - because life is an unpredictable happening. Surrender is nothing but being ready to
expand the screen, being ready to expand your understanding about life whenever it is needed. Karma is like weight training! The weights which you lift are karma, the pain which you feel is bad karma, the beauty and strength of the muscles which you build is good karma. If you have the understanding that the pain is part of the muscle getting built, and there is no bad karma, there will be no pain. Then suddenly, you will see whole thing as good.
The attacks that you face in life are karma. The richness and strength that happens in you as a result of the experience is good karma. The pain you go through at that time is bad karma, but if you understand that the richness and extraordinary strength happens because of the pain which you go through at those moments of insecurity, there is no bad karma, and the whole thing becomes life.
Take up this practice: Look into all the incidents in your life that you have attributed to bad karma. See how you can expand the screen and see them differently, so that there is no bad karma, no bad happening in your life.