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“The wound is the place where the light enters you.”
Rumi
How can we free our hearts from the consequences of Karmic Bondage? We want to live a happy and prosperous life. We may take different learning paths, but we should not have any regrets. We are the central character of our life stories. Should we not design and create an authentic life story? Yes, we can remain authentic to our strengths and weaknesses, and heal our karmic debts with regular meditation practice and a disciplined lifestyle. We can attain the intelligence of love and devotion.
Our life journey reflects our Karmic Bondage. If we pay enough attention to observe our karmic journey, we can free ourselves from the conditioning of the mind and release our life force energy. We can use this life force energy to speed up our spiritual development. The most important aspect of the spiritual journey is to witness the inner conflicts that you have built against love and overcome those barriers with the right understanding. If you accept this responsibility, you can manifest the power of an equanimous mind and a joyful heart.
The awareness of love has the power to ignite your life with creative pursuits and prosperity. If we witness a spiritual journey with a determined heart and mind, we sustain the sincere seeker’s attitude. Gradually, we develop faith in the life process and belief in our unique gift of life.
One of the critical aspects of the spiritual journey is to learn the art of forgiveness. Forgiveness can release your blocked life force energy and allow you to move towards the awareness of love. It is not a simple job, but it is not impossible either. In your life, you come across people who hurt your feelings, undermine your self-confidence, and criticize your efforts.
For such life events, you need to make a wise choice and learn to be kind to yourself. We need to seek our worthiness in the presence of love and wisdom.
In my personal life, I have come across narcissistic people who damaged my self-confidence and robbed me of my self-respect. It took me time to gain insights from those life events. I learned about my limiting beliefs and fear. I understood the psychological patterns of my mind. I decoupled myself from the consequences of my Karmic Bondage and made myself receptive to higher and meaningful life opportunities. I made a conscious choice to forgive those people with the right understanding and thinking. The people and circumstances that haunted me earlier became the guiding light for my soul.
I gained my self-confidence and used my creative life force energy to discover bliss—the purpose of my life. I believe any sincere spiritual seeker can persevere and raise their vibration to love.
Consider that you have a savings bank account with a significant bank balance. You look at your account and feel secure about your survival. You also have a loan account and you need to pay a monthly installment. For certain unavoidable circumstances, you could not pay the EMI for several months and forgot about the debt. According to the loan agreement, you received a notice. Your aim was to repay your debt, but now you were bound to extend the loan terms and pay an extra penalty amount. Naturally, you felt unpleasant.
Similarly, life reminds us of our karmic journey through our inner conflicts, relationships, and circumstances. If we forget our karmic debts, we need to pay the penalty and extend our suffering. We may knowingly or unknowingly try to forget and distract our minds from our past unpleasant memories. However, the karmic debt remains in our life.
If you internally pray and align your heart and mind towards your life’s purpose, you can receive the grace of universal energy. The universe guides you to the right people and circumstances. If you learn to pay attention to those messages, you can move toward the most optimum path.
I have experienced the fruitfulness of these messages in my life. You need to develop faith in the universal energy, and belief in your skills and abilities to pursue your purpose in life.
We seek relationships to fulfill our needs, desires, and dreams. It reveals our strengths and weaknesses to us through people and circumstances. If you do not accept the realities of life as they are, you will invite suffering. Emotional and mental bondages create restlessness in the mind. As a result, we block our spiritual development. Forgiveness helps us to free our hearts from karmic bondages. However, we must remove the inner barriers that keep us from our divine nature.
Consider that you are a mountaineering guide who enjoys trekking and helps other novice mountaineers on new terrains. One day, a group of young people came to avail your service and showed their interest in trekking. You were glad to guide them. A day before your expedition, you conducted a session and explained the guidelines and precautionary measures to the fellow travelers. They carried their backpacks during trekking. You took the lead, and the others followed you. After a few hours, you passed through a steep slope. You made slow steps with caution and saved your energy. You waved to the other mountaineers and communicated with a gentle hand gesture. As a leader, you wanted to make sure that your followers took their steps carefully. A few of the mountaineers slowed down and understood your instructions. However, one of them was taking quick steps and could not pay attention to you.
Because of fatigue, he reacted with frustration. He thought that you should have paid enough attention to your job. He ignored your instruction. He was angry and complained about your negligence.
At that moment, one of the fellow travelers interrupted him and drew his attention towards you. The fellow traveler explained your intended message. The angry traveler realized that he was required to take slow steps to save his oxygen level. As a result, he understood your message and realized his ignorance. He thanked you for guiding him in the right direction.
Similarly, the heart is our mountaineer guide, and the mind, and senses are young mountaineers. Bliss is the mountain terrain. The energy of bliss lives in the center. The intelligence of love works in equanimity. The heart guides you towards your bliss. We must listen to our hearts in silence, follow our inner joy, and use the life force energy to discover the purpose of life.
If we cannot align the mind and senses with the heart’s calling, we become restless. In equanimity, the inner voice whispers and guides us to what we love the most. We realize that we need to save our hearts so that bliss can find its expression. Only a seeker with a light and apparent heart can exercise its creative life force. The states of the lower mind such as anger, hate, jealousy, bias, burden the heart, and do not allow us to pay attention to the inner voice.
Self-inquiry is the tool to develop the right understanding and right thinking. We must self-inquire without biases and judgment. In a still and relaxed mind, one can observe their life events with unwavering attention.
Asking the right question helps us to direct our awareness to our required life events and personalities. For example, in a toxic relationship, we can remain a victim or raise the heart’s vibration.
Ask yourself:
● What are my needs, desires, limiting beliefs, and fears that attract me to that person or circumstances?
● Do I follow any fixed behavior pattern in interpersonal relationships or in particular circumstances?
● Is holding the person or events in my thoughts and emotions worth my time and energy?
● Is it wise to change their lives and circumstances, or should I attempt to understand the nature of my mind and listen to the call of my heart?
● Is it possible to gain insight into my behavior, thoughts, and feelings that could help me in my spiritual development? Is it possible to disassociate permanently with my thoughts and emotions from past events and people?
Evaluate your life priorities, organize your thoughts, and align your creative life force towards your spiritual journey.
The right understanding helps you to gain insights about your past events and people. Learning about your mind and spirit helps you to deepen and broaden the perspective of life. It further aligns your thoughts with the opportunities that life can offer you on the spiritual journey. The wisdom to travel and progress on the spiritual path leads to developing a curious student’s attitude.
Kaikeyi had a son named Bharat. She treated Lord Rama as her son. For a certain period, Bharat was staying away from the kingdom. On a particular day, a housemaid named Manthara who had worked at the palace for a long time, passed by the city and saw that people were preparing for a celebration. She inquired and found out they were waiting for Lord Rama’s kingship ceremony. On hearing this, Manthara felt extreme grief and wished the ceremony was not taking place.
She entered Kaikeyi's house and started talking casually. After some time, she cunningly said, “Do you have any idea about the kingdom’s activities?” Kaikeyi chuckled and ignored her question. Manthra made a gloomy face and internally weaved tricks to manipulate Kaikeyi’s mind. She paused and made a serious face. Kaikeyi became anxious and felt discomfort at the reaction. She further probed her. Manthra’s trick worked, and she felt happy to witness this psychological drama.
She described her mental speculations and distorted images with conviction. She conspired a story against Lord Rama’s mother, Kaushalya. She malignly spoke and sabotaged her image. She complained about Kaikeyi and Bharat’s future. She mentioned that King Dasharatha would not pay attention to her as he did before Lord Rama’s kingship. She explained the dire consequences and injected fear and doubt in Kaikeyi’s heart and mind.
Kaikeyi felt crippled with fear and doubt and lost the intelligence to distinguish between the real and unreal. She did not self-inquire into her heart and mind but thanked Manthra and affirmed her ill thoughts. She became the victim of her karma. After that, Kaikeyi went to King Dasharatha and asked him to fulfill two wishes of hers. She said that he would have to give kingship to Bharat and send Lord Rama to exile for fourteen years in the forest. King Dasharatha felt devastated. He could not take the emotional and mental turmoil and become unconscious. After struggling with his inner conflict, he kept his words but could not face Lord Rama.
When Lord Rama came to know about this incident, he walked into King Dasharatha’s room and saw him lying on a bed, lifeless with extreme grief. He further enquired with Kaikeyi, who was standing near Dasharatha. Kaikeyi reacted insensitively and said some harsh words. She also reiterated that Lord Rama’s departure would keep his father’s name and relieve him from pain. The compassionate Lord Rama was aware of the heart and mind of all beings. He smiled and responded with a calm mind and gentle words.
He said that he sees the opportunity to associate with saints and sages in the forest. He realized that he would receive teachings and blessings from those associations, which could not have been possible in the kingdom. He felt glad for Bharat’s kingship and expressed his goodwill for him. He went to his father and consoled him with his thoughts and words. Lord Rama’s words instantly relieved Dasharatha’s emotional and mental burden. As a result, he felt calm momentarily.
Lord Rama understood the actual intention of all people, observed their strengths and weaknesses, and accepted the circumstance’s reality. Lord Rama was aware of his divine play and his role and responsibilities. Lord Rama did not build karma with Kaikeyi and other family members. So, Lord Rama healed others’ lives and filled his heart with joy and peace for a better future. He aligned his thoughts towards opportunities and worked in the presence of love.
Forgiveness is the way to release the blocked life force energy and align it towards the higher purpose of life. In a relaxed mind, a person can directly investigate and visualize their past events with unwavering attention. Forgiveness helps us to gain insight into our previous life events in terms of the spiritual dimension. Self-inquiry is the tool to develop the right understanding and thinking. We must practice ‘self-inquiry’ without bias and judgment. Thoughts aligned with self-knowledge expand our perception of opportunities in life and help us raise our vibration to love and inner joy.
