No Web without a Spider

Karma is about shifting responsibility from heaven to yourself. In this, you become the very maker of your own destiny.

Sadhguru

Karma gives freedom! This is the first and most intimate message I learned from Sadhguru, who became world-famous with his Isha Foundation. In many other contexts, I have heard a rather frightening or completely overloaded interpretation of “karma”, for example, as relationships that have “a lot of karma”—usually particularly bad relationships—or relationships that were pre-ordained, and so on. Sadhguru’s way and language seem to me much more sober but also more permissive: karma is simply what is. It is a fact and the most dynamic form of existence. Karma grows from all actions, thoughts, and feelings.

A karma-conscious life is not the sword of Damocles hanging over us—it is self-empowering. In everything I do, think, and feel, I spin myself a web that can be called “karma.” The important thing is to spin the web consciously and not be so focused on myself that I get caught up in it. Through awareness and the training of consciousness, even unfavorable, repetitive patterns can be changed. Karma is, therefore, not a prison but an invitation to a palace.

Karma is not a problem; it is simply there. Our life experiences have a value that cannot be thrown away. Our problems with karma begin only when we are not aware of our ability to confront it or simply don’t have the tact and know-how to act appropriately and need more practice. Karma is not what happens to us, but knowing how to respond, says Sadhguru. And for all those who feel they want to change and practise more, he gives an interesting piece of advice for “better” karma: “Become a mother to the world!” That is, perhaps, worth thinking about for a while.

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Translation Joshua Kelberman
Image Jochen Breme, ‹Behütung›, Installation, sculptural objects, photographs. Gallery «Kunst 77», Bonn, 2006. More about the images at Reincarnation and Karma as a Developmental Idea.