The Concept of Karmic Accounts

Have you ever wondered why good people also suffer in life?

People whom we see as pure souls, always doing good things for others, always loving and compassionate towards everyone, still have to face suffering in life at times.

We have also seen many people who do not engage in good deeds but enjoy life without any setbacks or problems.

When we see such incidents, we say that everything is pre-destined. Everything is decided by the God.

The Law of Karma says that good deeds produce good destiny, but when we see good people suffering, our mind gets confused as to why that has happened.

Our mind starts to question whether The Law of Karma truly works or not. And if it works, how?

To understand this, we have to first understand the concept of ‘who we are’, and then we will understand the concept of our ‘Karmic Accounts’.

So let’s address the first question. Who we are?

We often identify ourselves with what we can see. On the broadest level, we identify ourselves with this body. This is called ‘body consciousness’. Subsequently, we identify ourselves with our names, our professions, our positions, our relationships, and so on. This all combined, including the body, is called ‘ego consciousness’.

However, we are not any of them. We are a soul. A soul on a journey. And this journey is not of just this lifetime but of many lifetimes. Just like we change our clothes every day, the soul also changes its costume (body) after every life. Therefore, we are a soul on a journey. And just like us, everyone else around is a soul on their journey. This is called ‘soul consciousness’.

So whenever we see any person, including ourselves, we should see them as a soul. Not as a body, name, position, status, or their relationships with us. These are all temporary and will eventually come to an end once the soul leaves this body and takes on another body.

Now that we have understood who we are, we have the right platform to understand the concept of our Karmic Accounts.

When we leave this body, what do we take with us?

The money, power, relationships, this beautiful body, everything stays here. We only take our deeds, thoughts, behaviors, the sanskaras we created, and the feelings we share with our relationships, their blessings, and love.

The positive sanskaras we take along are the sanskaras of love, empathy, compassion, peace, calmness, purity, selfless service, etc.

On the other hand, if we have created some bad sanskaras with someone in this life, such as the sanskaras of jealousy, anger, envy, lust, hurt, etc, we take them as well along.

And all these positive and negative sanskaras together make our Karmic Accounts. These Karmic Accounts is not just for this lifetime but for the entire journey of the soul. Therefore, these Karmic Accounts are created in the name of the soul.

For example, you borrowed some money from a friend today. Next time when you meet him, you are wearing different clothes. Would that mean you don’t owe him the money anymore because you are not in the same costume that you were wearing while borrowing?

Of course not. The account was created in your name, not in the name of your clothes.

Similarly, our Karmic Accounts are created in the name of our souls, and not this bodily costume that we are wearing only in this lifetime.

So whenever we create a positive or negative sanskara or Karma with our deeds and our thoughts, this gets accounted in our Karmic Accounts for which we are bound to get the return.

The return might come immediately, in a few hours, weeks, during this lifetime, or it may come back in the coming lifetimes. But the return is inevitable. It is bound to come back.

Therefore, in this cycle of birth, life, and death, we always carry these Karmic Accounts with us. When we leave this body, the soul enters a new womb and takes on another body. What it carries with it is the Karmic Accounts. Nothing else. Everything stays in the past life. Only the Karmic Accounts get carried forward.

When a child is born, we often think that it is a pure soul that has just come into this world. However, it is not a blank soul. It has its own Karmic Accounts associated with its past lives which it carries in this body.

Now if the Karmic Accounts from the past lives are full of good deeds, the soul will experience its benefits in this life. If the account is filled with bad deeds, the soul will have to pay the price irrespective of which body it is occupying.

So when we see a good person suffering or a bad person enjoying, it is definitely not God’s choice. For God is never unfair. How can a parent be unfair to their children? It’s only a result of the past Karmic Accounts of that person and nothing else.

Now that we know of the Karmic Accounts, how should we proceed in this life from here on?

Whatever deeds we have created till now are not in our control. We have intentionally or unintentionally created both good and bad deeds. But with this knowledge of the Karmic Accounts, our present and future deeds are certainly in our control, and therefore our future destiny is certainly in our control.

We should always focus on creating good deeds. Please remember that deeds are not only in our words and actions, they are in our thoughts as well.

If we are helping someone but the thoughts in our mind are not pure, the deed will not be considered a positive deed. It will be considered a negative deed because thoughts play a more significant role in creating Karma. In fact, if we only start creating good and positive thoughts, our Karmic Accounts will be filled with positivity.

If we are being nice to someone because of their position or relationship, but in our mind, we are creating negative thoughts for that person because of any reason whatsoever, then we are not creating a good deed of being nice, our thoughts are the real source of our Karmic Accounts.

Therefore, we should always fill our minds with positive thoughts of pure love, compassion, service, peace, calmness, and understanding, and should always keep a check on negative thoughts of worry, stress, anger, jealousy, envy, lust, greed, etc.

Only if we start paying more attention to our thoughts, the journey of good deeds will automatically start because our thoughts ultimately translate into our actions and behaviors.

This entire knowledge gives us an understanding of two very important aspects.

• Number one, If we are facing tough times in life, be it in terms of health, finances, relationships, or anything else, we have to always remember that we are the only reason for this. No one else. Not even God. We have created some bad Karmic Accounts in this life or the previous lives for which we are paying the price.

We should never victimize ourselves by thinking what wrong have I done to deserve this? We have done something wrong, it’s just that we don’t remember it. Victimizing takes away the power from our hands.

We should rather look our difficulties in the face and should take an objective view of the situation and think about possible solutions. It is difficult to stay calm in bad times, but that’s the only right way to handle things. We are the culprits, not the victims.

The same applies to the good times as well. We are the creators of our good times and should always stay humble and grateful for the happiness we are experiencing.

• Number two, now that we know we are the creators of our destiny, we should take control of our thoughts and deeds and should start filling our Karmic Accounts with positive deeds. This will not only make sure that our future destiny is full of peace and bliss but will also give us a lot of happiness in this very moment. It will also empower us to face today’s situation with more brevity and calmness, which itself is a positive Karma.

If we start living our lives by keeping our Karmic Accounts in mind with every deed we do throughout the day, not only this life but our future lives will be filled with peace and happiness.

And when we are on our deathbed, we will be peaceful knowing our Karmic Accounts are filled with positive deeds, and we are going to experience a beautiful next life. That’s called the ‘Art of Dying’.

If you’d like to read more on this topic, please pick up a copy of this beautiful book ‘The Power of One Thought’ written by renowned spiritual teacher ‘Sister BK Shivani’.

I hope you found this useful. Please feel free to share your thoughts on this.