Karma's a Drag

The other day, I was complaining to my mother about how tired I was of listening to my American friend's divorce problems. Lisa was in the midst of a nasty divorce that was dragging on for months. She called me every evening with "Guess what that jerk did today" stories that resulted in two-hour phone conversations.

It wasn't that I didn't care about Lisa, I told my mother, or didn't want to help her. It was just that I didn't have the time. With my writing assignments, a household to run, a steady stream of guests, and a child who was out of school, I couldn't spend every weekend with Lisa. Besides, listening to her problems got me down. I wasn't even helping her, I concluded virtuously. I wasn't solving anything just by lending her my ear.

My mother listened to my tirade and said just one thing: "Help your friend. It is good karma."

Right, I sighed to myself. The "karma" word again.

One Hindu concept most Americans are familiar with is karma. It isn't an easy concept to follow, and Hindu mothers bring it up at the most inopportune moments--like my mother did. But it is still one of the most valuable teachings of Hinduism.

A primer for the uninitiated: Karma is a Sanskrit word that connotes action, duty, and consequences, all at the same time. Karma yoga is the yoga of action, of doing social work, of building shelters for the homeless, of doling out food in soup kitchens. When a Hindu scholar urges a young man to "do his karma," he is suggesting that the young man fulfill his duties--take care of his children, take care of his parents, be a good husband, make a livelihood, and contribute to society. When a beggar sitting on a street corner laments his fate by saying, "It is all because of my karma that I am sitting homeless like this," he's saying he must have done something bad in an earlier life. The consequences have come back to haunt him.

The beauty of karma is that it expands the mind. Rather than looking for "results" and "payback" in every endeavor, karma allows you take the long view of life. Every action does not have to have an equal and opposite reaction, like Newton said. At least, not right away. The reward can come later, in a different form. The fruits of your labor may not visit you in this life, or even the next, but they will be repaid in full measure at some point in the karmic chain. In more realistic terms, you may not get a promotion in spite of the long hours and effort you have put into your projects, but all that good karma will help you--in your next job, in finding a spouse, or in your next life.

How does that help me? you're thinking. I admit that's what I thought when my mother told me to accumulate good karma by listening to Lisa's problems. After all, Lisa was planning to move to California after the divorce, and I probably wouldn't see her again. To put it in crass, materialistic terms, Lisa was not going to return my favor; she was going to move across the country.

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