Beyond Karma

Why is it that bad things happen to seemingly good people? Can I change my destiny, or am I predestined to follow a certain path in life? What did Jesus mean when he said “As you sow, so shall you reap”?

In today’s episode, we look closer at karma, destiny, and the role of our free will. You’ll first hear Balakhilya give a thorough explanation of the term ‘Karma’. Then we look closer at a misunderstanding that many people have; namely that we voluntarily choose to be born in a certain life situation, and that we do that do learn certain lessons.

We speak about a truly compassionate person will use the idea of karma is the most beneficial way, teaching people how to live to not experience future suffering. Like Balakhilya says, “Real compassion is a condition of the heart”.

You’ll hear about how Balakhilya himself was a vegetarian, but used to serve meat stakes to customers in a restaurant – not seeing how everyone related to the meat (killing the animal, transporting it, serving eat, etc) gets equal future suffering, or karma for such activities.

We discuss how we can make progress in life, which actually means going beyond both bad and good karma. Getting off the wheel of birth and death is the aim.

We also talk about how one can make progress toward changing one’s life, and the necessity of actually purifying the heart to make that possible.