Embracing Mudita: Navigating the Litmus Test and Understanding Karma

I have promised myself and my beloved readers that I will write more in 2024. So, here I am, keeping my promise and writing the first post of 2024. I started the year sick. I got a terrible laryngitis and was literally dragging myself on the first day of the year. I had zero enthusiasm to have any fun on New year’s eve, and the following day. Son got upset that I had no plans for new year and was curled up in bed with my nebulizer. Nevertheless, I have no regrets. As I am growing older, I realize that nothing matters. The only thing that matters is being healthy and mentally peaceful.

In my previous blog, I mentioned about Mudita practice. I want to practice Mudit this year, however, on the morning of first January, I went through a litmus test of this practice. I saw happy pictures of a person, who has wronged me, on social media and my entire being curled up. I could feel pangs of anger, jealousy, resentment, and all other negative emotions run through my mind. I am a strong believer of Karma, and when I saw that person happy, I started doubting the concept of Karma. Is Karma real, then how come an evil person be so happy. However, later in the day, I sat down to chant and realised that even good and evil are relative terms. The person may have hurt my feelings but he definitely has some good credits in the balance sheet of Karma and he is yielding dividend from that. I also realized, that within myself, I have so much of negativity still lingering. I should trust the universe and let things unfold the way it should. Wanting bad for another human being, or feeling angry at the good fortune of another person only because he did wrong to me won’t do any good to my Karma, for sure.

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I feel grateful, when God allows me to go through these self-doubts. It helps me know the evil that is within myself and helps me to rectify that and become a better person. However, trust me, becoming a good human being takes effort, courage, and self-compassion. It can also get boring and tiring. At times, I do feel the intention to unleash the evil within me and let it play havoc. However, I know unleashing evil will only harm me and nobody else. We all have hell and heaven within ourselves. When our thoughts go towards evil, we create hell, and when it goes towards good, we create peaceful heaven. I recently heard this “our mind is not inside our body, but our body is inside our mind“. Suddenly, this makes so much sense. What we think has an immense impact on our body. No wonder, elders tell us to have good thoughts.

Karma may seem like a complicated term. However, Karma simply means making good choices. Good Karma is basically good choices. When we make conscious choices, they yield good results. When we make bad choices, they yield bad results. And, therefore, you can change your Karma by making good choices. However, the first step to making good choices is self-compassion, self-compassion, and kindness.