I had to leave my job due to very bad treatment one year ago. I still have not been able to find another job despite my persistent, strong, sustained efforts. I know I need to release the anger and move on but sometimes it is hard to get over this experience. How will karmic law pay me back for this suffering which was caused by factors outside my control? How can I move on from such experiences without rage or resentment?How will God and Guru help me heal?How to pray to stop such karmic cycles?
—P, India
Dear Friend,
To continue with bouts of anger and resentment is to suffer multiple times: far beyond the initial crises. Even if you continue to feel justified in your anger, ask yourself: does my anger change what happened? how does my anger affect me? Do I benefit or like these feelings? Until you intuitively decide that you want to banish anger from your heart it will remain. You can pray for the grace to reach such a state where you no longer identify with such feelings, but until you do such feelings will linger.
Another side of this is to take responsibility. This is more difficult when you feel the “suffering was caused by factors outside your control.” The law of karma declares that nothing happens to us that isn’t ours to own on some level or another. It may not be practical in your particular circumstances, but consider being willing to examine your own conscience to see if something in your attitude on the job or towards the job might have invited your “bad treatment.” Perhaps the roots of your experience lay deeper in the subconscious matrix of karma and thus cannot be extracted by mental examination. In all cases, however, it is helpful to accept with calm faith the simple fact that this experience happened and that there’s something in it for you to learn, or, at minimum, to accept as 1) your karma, and 2) God’s grace helping to strengthen your faith in His goodness, mercy, and wisdom. For these attitudes too only prayer and meditation can draw that grace to purify your anger and bless you with inspiration to carry on.
Unless your self-examination reveals the seed of how you might change behavior or attitude to end this cycle of karma, offer it to God for purification. It is less important to know cause and effect and more important to seek the presence of God and grace which works through intuition to enlighten action and thought in the present moment. Thus can karmic cycles vanish.
We have come from God and “tat twam asi!” Therefore, affirm your own purity, peace, and wisdom. If you were badly treated remember that this is the karma of others and it is they who have to work that out. It cannot touch you unless you accept it and your ego as your reality. Affirm: “I am strong in my Self; I am complete in my Self; nothing and no one can harm so long as I remain in the presence of God.”
Smile!
Nayaswami Hriman
