By Nandini Sharma

“Karma – what goes around, comes around. One day you will get punished for what you did today.” 

The first time I heard about this fascinating idea was from my teacher in third grade, who scolded a student for bullying his classmate. And what came next surprised me. It was like a wave of kindness crashed upon him and filled him with benevolence and decency. The boy who used to always steal my pencils started greeting me with a warm smile every morning. Did the teacher’s words affect him this much? Causing him to change his whole persona overnight? And would it have the same effect on other people?

Let’s take a better look at this word.

Karma, the meaning of this word is “actions”. This philosophical concept states that good or bad actions determine the future modes of an individual’s existence. This may sound very similar to Newton’s third law of motion “every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. But of course, Newton’s law is about motion, while karma talks about your actions and decisions.

Fear as a factor

When you are told that there may be a possibility that your negative actions can account for bad situations in the future, it is inevitable to feel distressed. You don’t want to be in the grip of something. This intuition may automatically drive you towards the right path to be the best version of yourself. Looking back to my first example, when the student was told about karma, he got nervous and probably started thinking about all his prior bad deeds: every time he bullied his friends, or stole someone’s belongings. From then on, he believed he needed to be generous to everyone so that he could get that same experience from the universe in return.

It’s all about your intentions

Karma is not just about undoing your previous mistakes to minimize the repercussions. It’s also about your state of mind. It’s about how aware you are of your actions and their effects on other people.

The act of him changing his actions was obviously beneficial. However, just like how there are 2 sides to every story, there may be another turn the story I mentioned could have taken. Perhaps he never understood his mistake or was still too selfish and careless to take account of all his previous bad deeds. The idea of karma definitely instilled some fear in him, but what if he decided not to believe in it? Would that allow us to make mistakes without any consequences? Believing in karma may not allow people to completely learn from their blunders. And in this case, one may wonder whether the motivation to become a better person was driven by fear of repercussion, or a genuine urge to improve oneself. This 

It’s important to understand that Karma is not just about distancing yourself from your deeds, but rather about having the right intention behind an action.

Karma is not the answer to everything

Karma is a theory; some believe in it, while some don’t. Karma, in the minds of many, has become an unseen malice that brings about punishment for actions never committed, or always seems to forget to punish the people we deem immoral. Whether it’s unexpected health problems or getting a job promotion, people tend to justify their circumstances by blaming karma, instead of rationalising the situation or reflecting on their own mistakes. This defeats the entire purpose and understanding of Karma – that it stems from our own actions. Karma only explains the outcomes of your actions. In the end, it is you who has in some way caused the situation. 

To conclude ….

When I first heard this word from my teacher, I just ignored it. Maybe it was my lazy or careless nature that never gave much thought to it. In this article, I tried some of the advantages and disadvantages of believing in karma. There may be a possibility for this phenomenon to exist. But no matter what, it’s good to believe in karma as long as you are aware of your actions and have a good intention behind them.