"Alright!" I replied. "Good for you."
"It's all Karma, Mom," her son said.
I was taken a back. Maybe he said something else.
"Did you say Karma?" I asked.
"Yup," he was sure. "Karma," he repeated.
"How old are you?" I asked, very impressed.
"Eight," he said and looked at me with disapproval. "It means if you do good, something good will happen to you, and if you do bad things, something bad will happen to you," he explained, for my benefit.
If eight year-olds are talking about Karma, I thought I should learn more about it too, so that I don't get startled when a pre-teen talks to me about life's lessons. So let me start with the definition --
"The sum of a person's actions during this and previous state of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in this and future state of existence."
This is similar to the definition in Hinduism, Budhism, Sikhism and Jainism, from where this word is derived. The definition has evolved over a period of time, and generally pertains to the current existence alone. A basic straight up definition in the present day world is .. "What goes around, comes around!"
And we all see that in our day-to-day lives. Good things happen to nice people. And generally speaking, the not so nice people (constant complainers, the disgruntled, paranoid folks who constantly believe that the world is always conspiring against them etc. etc.) will always be unhappy, and gradually isolate themselves over a period of time.
Whether we believe in Karma or not, spiritually or on humanitarian grounds, it's always a good idea to evaluate our behavior as we go about our lives. We always have to be conscious of the effects our choices have on our family, friends and society in general. People who don't treat others well, who are insincere, better hope there is no Karma, because otherwise, it is likely to come back and bite them in the rear!
"How people treat you is their Karma. How you react is yours." ~ Wayne Dyer
And here are a couple of quotes explaining the lighter side of Karma --
Here are some examples of INSTANT KARMA !
Road shoulder driver gets what he deserves--
Arrogance Karma --
Chair kick instant karma --
~ arvin chawla
