Just before my brother suddenly died, about two days before, I woke up to loud words ringing in my ears, literally shouting the words 'karma'. Was this message to me saying that my brothers' death was my karma or was I being warned of his imminent death (and was this his karma)?
—Niamh, Ireland
Dear Niamh,
I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your brother. May God bless you and your family during this time.
What you describe sounds like a loud voice trying to tell you that a strong karma would be hitting. This is not your karma, at least not in the first place, but your brother’s.
Yogananda recounts in his Autobiography of a Yogi that he had an experience just like yours. He heard “inexorable words” in “my inner consciousness”:
“Ananta [his brother] cannot live; the sands of his karma for this life have run out.”
In other words, we have a certain time to be here on Earth, sometimes it is longer, sometimes shorter. When that time is run out, karma hits us and we are gone.
Mahavatar Babaji said something similar about his disciple Lahiri Mahasaya: “Tell Lahiri that the stored-up power for this life now runs low; it is nearly finished.”
It was your brother’s time to go. Nothing could have changed or stopped it.
May you handle this painful but inevitable situation with wisdom, for your growth,
Jayadev
