Ka Ka Ka Karma!!!

I’ve been wanting to write an article about Karma for a while, but I decided to hold off on it to really analyze and observe the world around me applying Karma to my life. My common sense definition of Karma is “What goes around comes around.” But to my surprise and recent research, I found out Karma is an Indian religious concept. Not only that, but it also has several definitions.

One definition of Karma is the concept of action or deed, understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect. It originated in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, and Sikh philosophies.

Also, Karma is in contradistinction to faith advocated by Abrahamic religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which view all human dramas as the will of God as opposed to present and past life actions. If practicing Karma in Hinduism beliefs, people have free will to choose good or evil and suffer the consequences, which require the will of God to implement Karma’s consequences. If practicing Karma in Indian beliefs, the Karmic effects of all deeds are viewed as actively shaping past, present, and future experiences.

Here are a few Karma quotes I came across in my research:

“O youth or young man, who fancy that you are neglected by the gods, know that if you become worse, you shall go to worse souls, or if better to the better… In every succession of life and death, you will do and suffer what like may fitly suffer at the hands of like. This is the justice of heaven.” ~ Plato

“Thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.” ~ William Shakespeare

“Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must certainly pay for all they get.” ~ Frederick Douglas

“I'm a true believer in karma. You get what you give, whether it's bad or good.” ~ Sandra Bullock

My own personal belief in Karma is: “Do good. Then good things happen. Do bad. Then bad things happen.” ~ Me!

But then it got me wondering. Bad things happen to people all the time whether they do good things or not. If you are always good, does that mean that something bad happened to you because of something you maybe did in your past life? Do you believe in a past life? Or if you did something bad, do you keep in the back of your mind to track it and count that towards the Bad Karma you’ll probably receive in the future? If I live my life (the only life that I know of and the only life I have ever had) believing in Good Karma and doing good things left and right for the sake of only having Good Karma returned to me, does that mean I’m going to wonder like crazy and back track what bad thing I did to deserve Bad Karma if or when it hits me? Hmmm……Interesting……

I’m not so sure I believe my own Karma definition after all. But I will say this: Long ago in my trouble-some days in high school, I remember I stole a lipstick from a Rite Aid store because I didn’t want to pay for it. I had the money, but I didn’t want to pay for it. A few days later, my car wouldn’t turn on. Bad Karma? No, it couldn’t be. A couple months later, I saw a really expensive mascara I wanted and stole that too. A week later…….my car needed a new alternator. Bad Karma? Yea right!! Not too long after that I ran out of powder make up so I saw a nice one at Rite Aid and stole it too. What happened to my car? It needed a new starter!! Bad Karma? Um……yes I started to believe it was. I remember telling Andrea this “I can’t steal anymore make up.” She asked laughing “Why?” I said “Cause I can’t afford to fix my car anymore.”

I’m not so sure if my car breaking down after I would steal make up was the true calling of Bad Karma, but I do know that I don’t want to mess with it. And because it’s wrong to steal! Duh!! But I do believe that if you surround yourself with good things and good people, that good things will happen. Otherwise, why are they good? Good comes from good and bad comes from bad. It’s as simple as that. I’m very blessed to have good all around me with my friends and family. They are around me because I put them there and because I want them there. I can easily abandon everyone and I know I would fall apart without them. I cherish and appreciate each friendship and every bond I have with my family. Even if I’m 200 miles to 2 million miles away, they are my Good Karma. Do you believe in it? So let me leave you with an oldie but a goodie: “Treat others how you wish to be treated” because "Karma is a Bitch!" Thanks for reading!