The whole world is nothing but the principle of karma. The existence of bondage lies entirely on you, you are responsible for it. Everything is your own projection. You are responsible even for the formation of your body. Everything you encounter is your own design; nobody else is responsible for it. For endless lives, you have been responsible, “wholly and solely.”

~ Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan

So when a person is suffering, it is a result of his own karma, others’ karma is not involved. Whatever suffering a person experiences is all a fruit of the seeds of karma that were sown by us in our past life. And whatever seeds we sow in current life will come into fruition in the next life.

Fruits of karma are consequences of our inner intentions

The seed of karma that we sow is in the form of our inner intent.

Hence, it is our intent that shapes our future. With good intentions, we bind ‘merit karma’ (good karma), which when will come into fruition, will bring us happiness. In other words, And by having a bad intent, we bind ‘demerit karma’ (bad karma) which leads to punishment in the form of suffering of pain and sorrow.

One binds bad karma as he is unaware of the dire consequences. If one would, they would never do so. So, it is very important to understand the results we will have to bear in the next life for the bad intentions that we tend to happily bind today.

Moreover, God resides in every living being in this world. Therefore, we must not have the slightest inner intent to hurt any living being; or else we immediately bind bad karmas for our wrongdoings. Giving the slightest pain to any living being automatically means inviting suffering into our life. The pain-giving-karma that we bind is bound to give us fruit in the form of suffering in future. Hence, we should always be very cautious and think twice before we hurt any living being.

On the other hand, whenever we have the intent to give happiness to others or our actions actually give happiness to others, then we are giving happiness to God, for which we bind good karma. By sowing good seeds today, we will definitely receive good fruits in our next life.

How do we resolve our past karma?

There is only one way to deal with karma bound in the previous life and that is through inner peace and equanimity. New karmas are created when one reacts to situations of happiness and misery by generating attachment and hatred towards them. But if we remain in equanimity in situations of happiness and misery, new causes are not bound.

For instance, whenever suffering comes, one should understand that ‘I have done something bad in my past life, and now Nature is returning it back to me in the form of this suffering.’ Accordingly, we can pass through the situation calmly and peacefully, not harnessing a single bad intent towards any person or circumstance.

In case we cannot afford to undergo suffering, we must understand that it is because we give suffering that suffering comes. ‘Hence, come what may, I do not give suffering to anyone anymore’ is what we should resolve. Yet, if we happen to hurt someone, then immediately, we shall ask for forgiveness (pratikraman) from the God residing in that person whom we caused hurt. This will cleanse the hurt or pain that we have inflicted on anyone.