Karma: The Curse of the Fall
There are two powerful forces that dominate our experiences on this Earth: karma and grace. To understand these forces, we first need to define each one and describe how they work in our lives.
Karma is known as the Law of Cause and Effect. In the Bible, it is called the Law of the Harvest when it teaches, “A man reaps what he sows.” (Galatians 6:7). In other words, if you plant one red apple seed, you will harvest many red apples. If you plant one green apple seed, you will harvest many green apples.
The Law of Karma works like the Law of Gravity in the sense that neither Karma nor gravity takes into consideration the good things you may have done in your lifetime before imposing its consequences. This means that each time you make a mistake and lose your balance, gravity automatically takes over and you fall down. Make one mistake and lose your balance from a very high place, and you will fall down and die. It is the same with Karma. Make a mistake and hurt someone and you immediately owe a karmic debt for that mistake. That is because Karma takes each individual action and measures out a consequence equal to that action. To put it simply, karmic debt and gravity are like baggage: They both weigh you down regardless of how good of a person you are.
It may come as a shock to hear that karmic debt can never be paid by good actions. The reason is that we as human beings are always making mistakes, either intentional or unintentional, by commission or by omission. Worse, there are humans who intentionally inflict harm on others for some type of personal gain. It could be for financial, political, or social reasons or for emotional gain such as revenge or spite. As a result, we can never make up the balance and overcome the negative consequences of karma. If we could pay our karmic debt, then our lives would not be filled with suffering, aging, or death.
There was a time on Earth when man did not live under the Law of Karma. In the Garden of Eden, man lived by grace under the full protection of God. In this paradise, there was no suffering, no aging, and no death. After the Fall, we lost God’s grace and we began to live under the Law of Karma. The Law of Karma is the curse that God placed upon man and the Earth because man decided to follow Chaos, the father of the world we live in today. Because of the curse of the Fall, each one of us has the seed of Chaos. This seed of Chaos is death.
While good actions are important, they are not enough to save us from our karmic debt. This saving grace is only found in God’s heart. In my next column, I will explain how God’s grace is like good karma credit in that it provides the balance needed to allow us to release the baggage of karmic debt. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works.” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Mother Owl.
