The Vase of Life and the balancing act of karma

Balancing act of karma

We all would be having or have had a vase in our house. A good old vase sitting pretty in our hall or our living room or our bed room. We all have at some point or the other by intention or not, ended up toppling that vase. Our immediate reaction is oopsy and we put it back in its place in a jiffy. We have a innate urge that the vase needs to be back in its place. We dont keep it lying there toppled, we want it back in order. Just like the vase, our lives have a natural order. Every living being stands in life in his or her own order, his or her own place.

Depending on our circle of influence or control, we tend to impact each others lives. Just like the vase, we impact the vases of others’ lives through our actions and deeds. We may with or without our intent, end up moving or toppling hundreds or thousands of vases in our lifetime. When the inanimate vase can create a reaction within us to our action of toppling it, so can our action towards other living beings create many reactions within and around us. This culmination of actions and reactions is known as our karma.

Out act of toppling the vase is our action and the act of setting it back right is the balancing act. This is the basis of karma, that when our actions create an imbalance in our being and that of others, we need to have an strong urge to do the balancing act as well. We can’t silence that urge, we can’t bury it for eternity, it can’t be managed unless there is a genuine intention and commitment to balance it. The vase of life can’t be toppled and be left there, it has to be set right. We don’t say let it lye there, or that it can be put back later at our convenience. We don’t say let someone else set it right either. We put it back ourselves immediately. In the same manner, unbalanced karma should not be accrued and kept unaddressed for a covenient future. The vase has got into a position where it cannot get upright by itself. Nor can we expect to pass the buck and think, I will get someone else to balance my karma, you have to set the vase right yourself. Unless we do that, our karma will create an strong urge for rebalance in ourselves and others, and affect our existence. Even science has established that action and reaction is a fundamental reality of our existence. Irrespective if you are large or small, high and mighty, the same rules of existence apply. You can create an exception for yourself, but it will not sustain. Whether you throw a small stone or a huge boulder upwards, the forces acting on it will be proportional and it will come back to its place on earth in a state of balance. Science also says that the reaction to an action is not just equal to balance it, but it is also immediate. When you punch a punching bag or fire a gun, the kickback is immediate, the reaction doesnt happen later at our convenience. This is to remind us that same applies to accumulated unbalanced karma. It needs to be balanced at the earliest to prevent ripples or suffering in our existential fabric.

We often tend to expect differential treatment from karma. When it comes to us, bearing the fruit of karma is an impatient and reckless exercise, but when it comes to the balancing part we either try to wash our hands off it or procrastinate. When we see a flower bud in the vase that carries with it a potential to be a flower rich in fragrance, we can’t even wait for it to bloom. We want to pluck it even before its able to spread its petals and become a flower in full bloom. In our impatience and ignorance, we may even uproot it early or stunt its growth by stopping its nurturance. We forget that we need to continue to nurture it or nourish it in whatever way we can. Cursing the flower for not bringing you fragrance yet will only cause it to decay and that will be the smell you will have to bear later. Let alone offer its fragrance to you, the poor flower hadn’t even got to know of having a potential for rich fragrance itself. So karma is never-the-less doing the act of nurturance with patience, so that the flower when it blooms, will spread its fragrance to you and the world around. That will be its karmic balancing act for the nurturance that you offered in its early life. And if you are used to breaking vases out of your greed or resentment, again and again causing great suffering to the flowers in a delicate phase of its life, the time is ripe for you to start mending your ways and tending them with sincere intent and commitment to balance the karmic imbalance that you have created, irrespective of whether the flower gives you its fragrance or not. This process of balancing can be tougher than the process of creating an imbalance. Like toppling a vase just needs a small push, while to set it right  you need to hold it, put it back together, and set it back where it belongs. Balancing may also take your time and resources, but for some reason we tend to spend these more for creating imbalance in our lives and that of others, and when it comes to rebalancing our karma, we do not want to put the effort nor the resources, and wish that things would just rebalance by itself. But the reality is neither the toppled vase nor the half withered flower can get back without the external support from those who toppled or let it decay in the first place. But as we discussed earlier, if we have created an imbalance, it is we who have to rebalance our karma. If we feel this is being unfair,  then we should have been more careful while the imbalance was getting created by our actions in the first place. So if your intent can lead to karmic imbalance, commit beforehand that just like I will do whatever I have to to further this cause or intent, I commit to do whatever it takes to restore the balance. And make that commitment in presence of the  people who may be affected so that they do not suffer trying to comprehend the imbalance created. And if you cannot communicate your intent or commitment, then it is better you reassess it and go ahead only if you can communicate it. An intent and commitment that is not communicated or cannot be communicated is a recipe for disaster when it comes to karmic imbalances and can have far reaching impact on our lives. This is because not being able to communicate imdicates your intent is questionable and will not withstand a discussion, or that you want to take the risk but when it comes to the commitment to rebalance your karma, you want to keep the door open to escape if things go wrong or not as per your expectation with the karmic imbalance you created.

Repeated abuse and exploitation of our position as a superior species in this world, be it of the environment or the lives of other beings and species that coexist with us, has created unpreceedented karmic imbalance. And there may be possible ramnifications of unimaginable proportions as the karmic balance of the world gets restored sooner or later. As we are getting to realise that there is a strong prevalence of this ultimate design at the core of our existence, we need to accept the realities when we can, imbibe them in our decisions and actions, moderate the extremist karmic imbalances that we set into motion and aid the process of rebalancing. The sooner that the human civilisation acknowledges it and embraces it, the greater will be its progress in the ages to come.