Is Bad Karma Bad and How to Get Rid of It
How to get rid of bad karma is a question I often read and hear of. I was born and raised in India, where karma, in Sanskrit, means fruits of your action.
Existence and evolution of the word karma
In physics, it is labeled as "cause and effect". Buddha propounded it as the laws of causality which states that every cause leads to an effect and the effect is the cause of one more effect.
When you experience bad times, it's a great time to reflect and take responsibility for your thoughts, words, and actions. If you are a good person and still bad things happen to you, as yourself "how do I manage to create this?"
Bad karma can be incurred through negative thoughts. Curb these thoughts so they do not parlay into emotions, words, or action. Actions taken in a hurry could be called bad actions that result in bad karma.
Have you seen pets take on the diseases of their humans? When children consider themselves responsible for their parents fights innocently they take on the pain of their parents. Similarly, when you love someone and fuss over them incessantly, you could take on their karma.
When you experience bad times, it's a great time to reflect and take responsibility for your thoughts, words, and actions. If you are a good person and still bad things happen to you, as yourself "how do I manage to create this?"
Bad karma can be incurred through negative thoughts. Curb these thoughts so they do not parlay into emotions, words, or action. Actions taken in a hurry could be called bad actions that result in bad karma.
Have you seen pets take on the diseases of their humans? When children consider themselves responsible for their parents fights innocently they take on the pain of their parents. Similarly, when you love someone and fuss over them, you could take on their karma.
In ethnic cultures, mothers pray to take on the agony of their children, and children pray to take on the pain of their children. Yogananda was heard talking about guru's taking on the karma of their disciples.
I have met people who love their parents so much and ask to take on the suffering of their parents. The physical symptoms of their family members disappear and now they are inflicted with those symptoms.
Suddenly the negative karma of a loved one becomes your karma.
In my nearly twenty years of practice and fifty plus years as an Indian woman who loves to notice, I have observed time and time again how empaths take on the karma of family members. Some call it boundary-issues, others call it the wounded healer.
When you hear karma, it is wise to remember, that karma can be both good and bad. The ultimate aim of a yogi or a spiritual aspirant is to redeem themselves of both good and bad karma. Since good karma is the fruit of good actions, and because every action leads to another, good karma could lead to bad karma.
For example. you might see people with lots of friends still feeling lonely. You might notice people with tons of money struggling with legal suits or hardships in areas of health, relationships, peace of mind, etc. So if you truly want to be free of all karmas, here are a few strategies.
The adage As you sow, so you reap is a Biblical proverb. Karma exists in Christianity too, without the explicit use of the Sanskrit word "karma".When you sow a seed, a plant that grows from the seed bears many fruits and each fruit has one or more seeds. Some plants bear fruits for a very long time.
Getting rid of karma is not easy but is possible for the sincere student. I have heard people say "I don't want or need their karma." Karma isn't an infectious disease you get from anyone.
Karma can seem like a domino-effect. When the earth shakes sightly and one snowflake gets dislodged and begins rolling downhill, it attracts other loose snowflakes and overtime could result into an avalanche.
One negative thought, word or action is an energy particle that attracts other like energy particles and soon you are in the energy field of negative karma. The Hindus have something called Sadhana, meaning practice.
When you create and nurture a practice to negate the negative karma, you create a positive force field which could minimize your negative karma of a mountain into a pebble or a dust particle. If your karma needed a throat surgery, through the power of your Sadhana, all you might have is one single mild cough, and the negative energy got nullified.
#1 Sadhana is how the people from India get rid of bad karma.
A great starting point is to consider your karma as bad breath. You have to brush your teeth, scrape your tongue and rinse your mouth to enjoy fresh breath, don't you? Even if you have not eaten in a while or are fasting, you might have bad breath. This comes from your gums, food pipe, and your stomach.
Karma is like that. It arises from past lives and previous generations. If your parents and ancestors before them did something unwholesome, you might inherit the karma of your ancestors. If in your past life you entertained unwholesome thoughts, words or actions, karma catches up with you whenever it's time to reap what you sowed before with interest.
Daily spiritual cleanse on how to get rid of bad karma and prevent further creation of new karma.
So, how do you cleanse yourself of bad karma? It's like taking a shower or a bath at the end of each day. It's like brushing your teeth after your supper. You might not brush after every meal, or clean your physical body each time you come home but if maintaining physical cleanliness is a priority you would do it towards the end of each day, right? No matter how exhausted you feel, you clean your body before bed, just like you wake up and do what you need to do to freshen up.
Each night before bed you focus on this spiritual cleansing when you begin your journey of freeing yourself from all karmic debts - the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The spiritual cleansing ritual is a prayer. It is most effective if you write it out each night while speaking it out loud as well, at least for forty days. After forty days, you can say it out aloud to keep up the momentum. The following two prayers come from the Vedas, the scriptures of the Hindus.
Prayer#1 on how to get rid of bad karma for the day
"With my body, speech, mind, senses, intellect, self-effort or natural tendencies, through these actions I perform, I dedicate everything to the Universe and ask the fruits of all actions be dissolved into the cosmos."
Prayer#2 on how to get rid of bad karma for the day
"With a prayerful and humble heart, I ask the creator of the universe to forgive me for any action undertaken by me with my hands, feet, speech, ears, eyes, through my body and my mind. Also, I ask for forgiveness for doing required deeds incorrectly and not doing what is necessary."
#2 How to get rid of bad karma using the daily practice of forgiveness
Jesus prayed "forgive them father for they know not what they do". You could use any version of this prayer as often as you need it during the day. When in doubt don't is an adage that could be improvised to "when in doubt pray."
The prayer to say whenever in doubt "forgive me for I know not what I do". This prayer can be used anytime you feel stuck, lost, overwhelmed or any negative emotion surging within. If you feel someone around is acting out and negatively impacting you or anyone in your space say often as you must in your mind "forgive them for they know what they do."
#3 How to get rid of bad karma by focusing on balance
The universe always strives for balance. No positive or negative energy can exist on its own. Every positive force has an equal and opposite negative component to balance it and vice versa.
Someone engaged in negativity got you to focus on positivity - thereby bringing about balance. So in the end, bad karma isn't bad. Your prayer has to help you first before the energy can be transmitted to the environment and the other.
The negative impact of someone's bad karma got negative through your positive action. So, if you ask me "is bad karma bad?" I would say "No."
#4 How to get rid of bad karma by focussing on peace and contentment
Your good fortune is a blessing from your thoughts, words, and action of past lives and your ancestors. Give gratitude for each good experience and share your blessings with those you cross paths with on a daily basis.
This is paying off your karmic debts from your past. Living in gratitude helps redeem you of bad karma and free you from the burden of good karma too. This teaches you non-attachment, helps you experience personal freedom, and live a lighter life.
Generosity begins in the heart. You learn to treat others the way you want to be treated. This golden rule is the foundation of Christianity.
Keya Murthy, M.S., is a #1 international best-selling author and Clinical Hypnotherapist and Spiritual Life Coach at the Ventura Healing Center. If you are interested in moving beyond your circumstances to find your purpose and authentic happiness Keya is available for a clarity call with you. If you are a DIY person, then her book 11-Steps to Goal Getting : Using the Principles of Hypnosis, NLP & Huna is a great start for you to start getting your goals in any area of your life.
Article originally appeared on YourTango.com
