Journey of the Soul

"The kind of seed sown will produce that kind of fruit. Those who do good will reap good results. Those who do evil will reap evil results. If you carefully plant a good seed, You will joyfully gather good fruit." Says Buddha

Cause and Effect, these are not just two unrelated words –Look closely and you will see the link…. A lot of the time we only see the effect and completely fail to look behind it and see the cause.

Whatever the effect is, the resulting cause is identical and in equal proportional.

As per this theory, nothing ever happens to us unless we merit it. We receive exactly what we earn, whether it is good or bad. We are the way we are now due to the things we have done in the past. Our thoughts and actions determine the kind of life we can have. If we do good things, in the future good things will happen to us. If we do bad things, in the future bad things will happen to us.

Let’s say, you are getting ready to sit in on business deal…..but your self-belief is already low and feel, ‘that there is no way you're going to get the deal’….. Well, the battle is more or less lost. What has happened is that you yourself have sealed your own fate….In such cases, we become authors of our own destiny….We could say perhaps …self prophetic …thus it is more than likely that you are not going to get the deal.

Why did this happen? The law of cause and effect, that's why.

The law of cause and effect is known as karma.

The thing about Karmic account is that it is dynamic …. Every moment of the day we create new Karma by what we say, do, and think. If we understand this, we do not need to fear Karma. It becomes our companion….It can be our mentor; our teacher to create a bright future and be in control …For our life is the fruit of our own making. We have no one to blame but our self.”

What does it really mean?

Karma comes from the Vedic system of religion…Hinduism. Karma means “action” or acts of the will in Sanskrit. The Hindu believes that Karma governs all action, vibration, thoughts, and all dimensions of time and space.

In Buddhism, the meaning of Karma is structured as good Karma, bad karma, and liberating Karma. This is in sync with their belief of rebirth or reincarnation of the soul in an endless cycle till liberation. Reincarnation from the Sikh viewpoint is that we are reborn many times onto this earth. The continuum of birth, life, death and rebirth is governed by the universal principle of Karma.

Our stay on Earth could be considered as a ‘tour of duty’ The purpose of this is spiritual evolution, testing and learning journey for the soul, where new relations are created and the roles are played out ….we could say just as an actor enacts a character in different drama series.
Guru Nanak says: “After the union, the separation comes and after separation the union. After living the span of life, death comes and after death the life. He becomes the father of many and the son of many, the disciple and preceptor of many. Their lives in the past and future are countless. Nothing is known what was in the past and what will be in the future? (Salok Mehla 1, ang 1238, SGGS)
There is also a difference in the concept of God,

Sikhism is a part of Dharmic religions along with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism… (Dharmic religions are basically Indian, with the main religions being Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. These religions are similar in core beliefs, modes of worship and associated practices, which are a result of their common history of the origin and mutual influence.)
Christianity is part of Abrahamic religions. Abrahamic religions are religions which share the patriarch Abraham in their religious lineage, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are all considered to be Abrahamic religions, as Abraham appears in the religious texts of all of these faiths.

Sikhs view God as Formless, without any shape or form also Sikhism has a monotheistic view that God is One.

Unlike the idea of Trinity in Christianity where God is one, yet in three different states.

Furthermore, Sikhism doesn’t have Heaven and Hell as in the way Christianity believe in Heaven and Hell. Nor does Sikhs have Judgment Day, no Satan or Evil. Sikhism believes in Karma…the law of cause and effect where each individual is responsible for his/her actions and the result obtained from it.

In Sikhism we believe that person's ego is the principal cause of suffering as from this ego ‘the ahem’ comes the sense of ‘Mainn’ and ‘mera’, and from this comes desires, anger, lust, attachment to material things.

Therefore, a Sikh …A Khalsa, that means a pure soul, should always try to win over his/her ego. By embracing the soul’s true nature of unconditional love, unlimited understanding and patience, and creativity, one will be liberated from Karma and closer to the creator of all things, God. 

“The fear of births and deaths ceases with the perfect knowledge imparted by the Perfect Being. We stray no more, our wanderings cease, on listening to the Praises of that One, saith Nanak.”

To bring to a close with regards to Karma, we can say the soul’s perpetual journey and desire are to be free of Karma. To be debt free and break the proverbial bonds we have put upon ourselves and accumulated, perhaps over many lifetimes.

In Search for answers, we find so many more unanswered questions.......

The presence of Soul itself?

The journey of this soul?

Our Karmic Story.............