Karma - does it exist?

Do you believe in Karma? The Hindu law states that every act done, no matter how insignificant, will eventually return to the doer with equal impact. Good will be returned with good; evil with evil.

And since Hindu’s believe in reincarnation, karma knows no simple birth/death boundaries. If good or evil befall you, it is because of something you did in this or a previous lifetime.

As a Christian, I don’t agree with the latter, but I think that there are some biblical principles that could be tied up with karma.

In Luke 6 Jesus talks to his disciples and teaches them about loving your enemies. He states that you should “²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you . . . ³⁰give to everyone who asks you and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹Do to others as you would have them do to you.

There, in verse 31, is where I find the connection to karma. Do unto others, as you would like to be done unto you.

It is this verse that keeps me motivated to help people – I don’t do it to get shine, or to have something good happen to me in return. I also will not go into detail about this, because I am not here to brag about it, I would like to show you the kind acts that has been returned to me.

Card dilemma

A week or two ago I had a really hectic workout session in the gym, with a personal trainer. I eventually threw up. It might have been exhaustion, or the fact that I had been off sick the week before, with sinusitis. Point is, this nausea continued for a little while, which meant that I was moving very slowly.

In the meantime, Flip phoned me and said that he had also become ill and that I should buy some soup for dinner. I also wanted to get him some MedLemon, to speed up recovery. In my grocery bag, there were also some fruits. All of this equated to about R100 {about $11}.

The day before I received a new bankcard, and at the till, I tried to pay with this card. It declined about four times, before I decided to walk with my stiff and nauseated body to the other side of the mall to withdraw money. I had success.

However, you would note that I had to walk to the other side of the mall, at a very slow pace, it took me about ten minutes. By the time I returned to Woolies, a mid-30’s lady was waiting outside for me. “Did you come right my dear?” she asked. I answered yes, and asked why. She answered: “Well, I was waiting here for you to see if you came right, because if you didn’t, I would pay for your things.”

I nearly started crying. How nice of this lady to reach out to me like this! I phoned my mom, messaged my friends. I was dumbfounded. And it was awesome.

I did pay for my own stuff, don’t worry.

Another gym story

My second story is much shorter, but also gym related. I have really long and thick hair, which is sometimes more a curse than a blessing. Getting that problem sorted today.

Anyway, on this particular day, my hair was being extra thick and extra stubborn and I couldn’t get into a proper bun or ponytail, it was just all over the place. A lady in the dressing room sees me struggling with this thick mess on my head and hands me two extra hairbands.

“Here, you have them,” she says. “I can see you are struggling.”

I put my hair into a tight braid and had a fantastic workout.

……..

Doing nice things, doing unto others, as I would like to receive, should not just be a motivator for me – but to everyone. It’s the happiness that I got out of moments like these that will keep seeing me picking up strangers that are struggling next to the road and give them a lift, or dop other nice things.

Do something nice today. You might get more joy out of it than the person you are helping. 

image via weheartit