The Operation of Karma Through Successive lives

The source of desire is to be found in the ‘mind’, which is on the mental planes. Here the seed of desire is attached to the mind; the ‘desire’ exists here in a latent form, in the same way as the tree is latent in the seed. The ‘mental body’, which is the seat of the mind, is often called karana sharir, or the causal body, because it stores within itself the ‘seeds’ or the ‘causes’ of all desires.

The mind retains all impressions and dispositions in a latent form. The limited “I” or “ego” is composed of these ‘sanskaras’. However, the actual manifestation of ‘sanskaras’ in consciousness, as expressed through different mental processes, takes place in the “subtle body”.

The ‘soul’ which in reality is one and undifferentiated is apparently individualized through the limitations of the ‘mental body’, which is the SEAT OF THE EGO-MIND. The “ego-mind” is formed by the accumulated impressions of past experiences and actions. And it is the ego-mind that constitutes the kernel of the existence of the reincarnating individual.

• The ‘ego-mind,’ as a reservoir of latent impressions, is the state of the “mental body”.
• The ‘ego-mind,’ becoming SPIRIT, and experiencing activated and manifested impressions, is the state of “subtle body”.
• The ‘ego-mind’, as descended in the gross sphere for creative action, is the state of a “physical incarnation”.

Thus the ‘ego-mind’, which is seated in the mental body, is the entity that contains all the phases of continued existence as a separate-individual.

The ‘ego-mind’, seated in the mental body, takes ‘lower bodies’ according to the ‘impressions’ stored in it. These ‘impressions’ determine

• whether individuals will die young or old;
• whether they will experience health or illness or both;
• whether they will be beautiful or ugly;
• whether they will suffer from physical handicaps like blindness or will enjoy general efficiency of the body;
• whether they will have a sharp or dull intellect;
• whether they will be pure or impure of heart; fickle or steadfast in will; and
• whether they will be immersed in the pursuit of material gains, or will seek the inner light of the spirit.

The ‘ego-mind’, in its turn, BECOMES MODIFIED through the deposited impressions of karma, which include, not only gross and physical action but thought and feeling. And the circumstances of each incarnation are adjusted to the ‘composition’ and ‘needs’ of the ego-mind. Thus           

• if a person has developed certain special capacities or tendencies in one incarnation, he takes them on to the succeeding incarnation.
• Similarly, things that have been left incomplete in one incarnation can be completed in the incarnation that follow.
• Through the persistence of impressions, the ‘karmic links’ that have been forged in one incarnation are carried on and developed in succeeding incarnations.
• Those who have been closely associated with each other through ‘good’ or ‘bad’ dealings, therefore, tend to have recurring contacts.

Thus the ‘game of duality’ is carried on long enough to gather so much experience of the opposites that the ‘soul, out of FULLNESS OF ITS EXPERIENCE, eventually becomes ripe for dropping the ‘ego-mind’ and turning inward to know itself as the Over-soul.

If there has been a ‘give-and-take’ between certain persons that forges ‘karmic’ and ‘sanskaric’ ties between them and creates claims and counter-claims, they have to come together and carry on fresh dealings in order to meet these claims and counter-claims.

That which a person gives with a “selfish motive” binds him in the same way as that which he takes with a sense of separateness!

The transaction of ‘give or take,’ which thus binds, need not be purely on a material plane in the form of exchange of goods or money, nor in the performing of some physical tasks. It could consist of the exchange of ‘views’ or ‘feelings’.

If a person pays respect to a saint on the higher planes of consciousness, he creates a claim against him. The saint, who is still crossing the ‘inner planes’ and treading the spiritual path must then tarry and give such help as will bring the person paying respect to that point on the path which he himself has reached. Paying respect to an ‘advanced soul’ thus amounts to KARMA OF INTERFERENCE.
  Though respect, as such, is a good thing to receive, in receiving it– the ‘advanced soul’ may have to halt on the “spiritual path” until he has helped the person who came to him and paid respect.

The quick and unfailing responsiveness of souls is expressed in the law that– hate begets hate, lust begets lust, and love begets love. This LAW operates not only during a single lifetime, but across several lives.
  An individual feels impelled to hate or fear an enemy from past lives, although the present life may not have provided him with any apparent reason for this attitude. In the same way, without any apparent reason from the present life, he is impelled to love and help a friend from past lives. In most cases, the person may not be aware of the reason for his unaccountable attitude, but that does not mean there is no reason for it. Many things that seem inexplicable on the surface, become intelligible when considered in the light of karmic links brought forward from past lives

The ‘law of karma’ is law exhibiting itself through continuously changing mutual adjustments, which must go on when there are individual souls who seek “self-expression” in a common world.  It is an outcome of the responsiveness of ego-minds!

The rhythm in which two souls start their relationship tends to perpetuate itself, unless souls through ‘fresh intelligent karma’ change the rhythm and raise it to a higher quality.

As a rule, ‘accumulated karma’ has a certain inertia of its own. it does not change the nature of its momentum unless there is a special reason for it.
  Before ‘karma’ is created, the individual has a sort of freedom to choose what it shall be. But after it has been delineated, it becomes a factor that cannot be ignored and that either has to be expended through the results it invites or counteracted by fresh and appropriate karma.
  The pleasure and pain experienced in life on earth, the successes or failures that attend it, the attainments and obstacles with which it is strewn, the friends and foes who appear in it all are determined by the karma of past lives. Karmic determination is popularly designated as fate.      

Fate, however, is not some foreign and oppressive principle. Fate is man’s own creation pursuing him from past lives; and just as it has been shaped by past karma, it can also be MODIFIED, REMOULDED and even UNDONE through karma in the present life.

Just as the nature of karma in earthly life is determined by ‘impressions’ stored in the ego-mind, the impressions in turn are determined by the ‘nature of karma’ in earthly life. The ‘impressions in the ego-mind’ and the ‘nature of karma’ are interdependent!

Karma on earth plays an important part in shaping and reshaping the impressions in the ego-mind and giving it a momentum that decides the further destiny of the individual. It is in the arena of earthly existence that creative and effective karma can be expressed through the medium of the gross body.

Proper understanding and use of the ‘law of karma’ enables man to become master of his own destiny through intelligent and wise action! Each person has become what he is through his own accumulated actions. And it is through his own actions that he can mold himself, according to the pattern of his heart or finally emancipate himself from the reign of karmic determination, which governs him through life and death.

Broadly speaking, “karma” is of two kinds:

• that which binds and
• that which helps toward Emancipation and Self-realization.

Good as well as bad karma binds as long as it feeds the ego-mind through ‘wrong understanding’. But karma becomes a power of emancipation when it springs from ‘right understanding’ and wears out the ego-mind! Right understanding in this respect is best imparted by the Perfect Masters who know the soul in its true nature and destiny, along with the complications created by karmic laws.

The ‘karma’ that truly counts comes into existence after a person has developed a sense of distinction between good and bad.
  During the first seven years of childhood, the impressions that are released for expression are very faint. They also entail a consciousness of the world, correspondingly less responsive to the distinctions of the world. Therefore, the actions of children under seven years do not leave any strong or effective impressions on the ego-mind, and they do not play any important part in shaping their future.
  True and effective karma, which moulds the ego-mind and its future, begins after the individual develops a sense of responsibility. This “sense of responsibility” is dependent upon a sense of distinction between good and bad, which usually dawns fully after one has passed the first few years of childhood.

The law of karma, in the world of values, can be compared to the law of cause and effect that operates in the physical world.

• If there were no law of cause and effect in the physical world, there would be chaos; and people would not know WHAT TO EXPECT.
    In the same way, if there were no law of karma in the world of values, there would be an utter uncertainty of the ‘results’ that people cherish; and they would not know whether to expect good or bad from their actions.
• In the world of physical events, there is a law of conservation of energy, according to which no energy is ever lost.
    In the world of values, there is a law that once karma comes into existence, it does not mysteriously flitter away without leading to its natural results but persists until It bears its own fruit or is undone through counteracting karma. Good actions lead to good results, and bad actions lead to bad results.

The moral order of the universe is sustained through the systematic-connection between cause and effect in the world of values.
  If the law of karma were subject to any relaxation, reversals, or exceptions, and if it were not strictly applicable in the domain of values, there would be no moral order in the universe. Human existence would be precarious from the standpoint of the attainment of values.

In a universe without moral order, human endeavor would be perpetually fraught with doubt and uncertainty. There cannot be any serious pursuit of ‘values’– if there is no assured connection between means and ends or if the law of karma can be set aside.

The inflexibility of the law of karma is a condition for significant human action, which would be utterly impossible if the Law of Karma could be safely ignored or flouted.

In its inviolability, the law of karma is like the other laws of nature. However, the rigorousness of the operation of karmic laws does not come to the soul as the oppressiveness of some external and blind power but as something involved in the rationality of the scheme of life.

Karmic determination is the condition of true responsibility. It means that an individual will reap as he sows. What a person gathers by way of experience is invariably connected with what he does.

• If a person has done an evil turn to someone, he must accept the penalty for it and welcome the evil rebounding upon himself.
• If he has done good turn to someone, he must also receive the reward for it and enjoy the good rebounding upon himself.

What he does for another he has also done for himself, although, it may take time for him to realize that this is exactly so!

The law of karma is an expression of justice and a reflection of unity of life in the world of duality.

–    Meher Baba

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Source ::
Discourses, Pg:: 327-333
© AMBPPCT, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India/Bharat