"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 per-formed 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. The child finds out that stoves
and burns are connected, and begins to see some sense and reason in the ad-monitions
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 out-lived 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 today 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
our-selves 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 al ng certain
lines ; that one changed your point o view and made you see things with a broader
sweep o vision. This grief caused you to feel the pain of hers ; 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 "relearning"
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 relation-ships, 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. has many grades, many classes,
many scales of progress. And the lessons must be learned whether e 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 predispositons, 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 today, 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 omen, in the book of the world, and
in the scroll of he heavens, which is writ with stars."
Under the operation
of the Law of Karma every an is master of his own destiny-he rewards himlelf-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 rep-resent 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 enfoldment
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 relation-ship, 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, al-though 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 opera tions
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 diety 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 re-moved. 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 like-wise 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 neighlbors 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 Brother-hood 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, tomorrow
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 alway ;
"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
esire 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 them-selves 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.