T H E   L A W   O F   K A R M A

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PART 2
Man can turn "poison into nectar”. All human beings that have reached a certain level of spiritual evolution have always felt that they can resist “the karmic stream” that drags them in a direction established by the nature of their past actions.

There are many examples of spiritual heroes, saints or wise people, who could “defeat” their destiny and triumph over a negative situation shown, for example, in their astrological chart.

Occult astrology states that “the stars influence but do not inexorably determine”, meaning that the subtle astral forces do not decide on one’s destiny and that a person can transform their destiny thanks to free will and helped by spiritual discrimination, a strong will and wisdom.

Hindi tradition asserts that a fully spiritually accomplished yogi becomes “the master of his own stars”.

THERE IS NO COINCIDENCE
The principle of causality works efficiently if it is integrated in the entire Manifestation, which naturally means that each event or phenomenon has a certain cause and thus, there is no hazard or coincidence as everything in the perfect and sublime Creation of God is correlated and manifested according to the eternal and unchangeable divine macro cosmic laws.

Many people consider that life problems like poverty, richness, infirmity, etc, are “the fruits of the whims of fate”. In fact, everything has a cause and is ruled by very precise laws that certify first of all the necessity of multiple existences in manifestation, that is, of re-incarnation.

The well-known text of Hindi spirituality, “Bhagavad Gita” says: “Birth is necessarily followed by death and death by rebirth. Just as a man throws away his worn out clothes and puts on other ones, so the inhabitant of a body throws away his old covers to put on new ones.”

These changes of state, these returns in the physical plane and these “flights” to the superior levels of Creation are ruled by a universal and implacable law.

Life and death succeed one another in a rapid rhythm, similar to the two fundamental phases of the human breathing (inhalation and exhalation).

The great liberated Shankaracharya said: “The rhythm that makes the human being pass to a well established state and form on earth (that is, on the physical plane) and which then sets him free again, is a cosmic law that is applied in each men’s evolution.

Owing to this law, a man can hope to reach a more and more elevated state of consciousness and eventually, to separate from the restrictions of this cosmic law and to freely cooperate to their display.”

LOST IN ILLUSION
What chains the human being in the cycle of successive processes of birth and death (which the yogi tradition calls samsara), are countless desires that generate attachments.

Attachment is an inexhaustible source of suffering because these unsatisfied desires generate frustration, and frustration generates anxiety, fear, illness, and other physical and psychic disorders.

Maya is the universal illusion or that terrible force that gives birth to ignorance, allowing the human being to see only the differentiated aspect or the multiplicity of the universe in the essential reality of its profound unity.

Desires chain the human being to the world of appearances; they are born from ignoring the true and divine essential nature within each of us, which is the Divine and Eternal Supreme Self (Atman).

Thus, “Desires become the seeds of future re-incarnations”, writes Swami Shivananda.

By searching deeper inside ourselves, we discover that first of all, the ego lies at the base of all our common wishes; that desire chains the human being to objects because of the “blindness” generated by Maya (illusion), because of ignorance and lack of spiritual discrimination.

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