Q: Karma follows man beyond his grave. How can we prevent karma? Good and bad actions maintain duality of existence. Good actions are those that make us lighter, expand our hearts and earn us merits. Bad actions are those that come out of hatred, revenge, enmity, and anger which makes us heavier and binds us to the web of relationships by earning us demerits. Both good and bad actions keep us in the web of karma and keep bringing us back through many wombs. Dependency on the external world keeps us in the karmic web.  Ownership of actions and manipulations of mind maintains us here, birth after birth. Turning inward and steadily getting out of all dependencies of earth, and establishing oneself into oneself is the only way to break the karmic web. Reduced dependency on anything and anybody, as well as NO EXPECTATIONS over anything, will help us maintain detachment. Awareness that this body is decaying every moment and we are all walking towards our inevitable end is...

A man took his shoes in for repairs.  The shoemaker inspected the worn out shoes and said it will require 3 basting stitches, 10 Riyals each for a total of 30 Riyals. The man agreed, gave the money, and walked away hoping to soon wear his repaired shoes again. The shoemaker got busy; one stitch, second stitch, third stitch... In a closer inspection he realized that though his work was finished, should he perform yet another stitch, the life of the shoe will be greatly extended becoming sturdier and better built. On the one hand, he had agreed to the fee for services and could no longer  ask for a higher price, on the other hand he knew that a proper fix required an extra stitch. He was torn between performing or not performing the extra stitch.He was caught between the desire for personal gain and his own moral principles. This is a fork in the road where logic cannot find offense with either chosen trail.  Choosing  not to perform the fourth stitch, h...

In the country of Armenia, in 1988, Samuel and Danielle sent their young son, Armand, off to school. Samuel squatted before his son and looked him in the eye. "Have a good day at school, and remember, no matter what, I’ll always be there for you." They hugged and the boy ran off to school. Hours later, a powerful earthquake rocked the area. In the midst of the pandemonium, Samuel and Danielle tried to discover what happened to their son but they couldn’t get any information. The radio announced that there were thousands of casualties.  Samuel then grabbed his coat and headed for the schoolyard. When he reached the area, what he saw brought tears to his eyes. Armand’s school was a pile of debris. Other parents were standing around crying. Samuel found the place where Armand’s classroom used to be and began pulling a broken beam off the pile of rubble.  He then grabbed a rock and put it to the side, and then grabbed another one. One of the parents looking on asked...

"Once, Swami Vivekananda visited King of Alwar in present day Rajasthan. The king in an attempt to mock idol worship told Swami ji, "I've no faith in idol worship. How can one worship stone, wood and metal? I believe people are in illusion and just wasting time!” Swami ji smiled. He asked the king's assistant to take down the picture of the king that was hanging on the wall. Although confused, the assistant did so. Then Swami ji ordered him, "Spit on the picture!” The assistant was shocked and looked at both of them. Swami repeated again and again, becoming sterner each time. The king was growing angry and the assistant started trembling. Finally, he cried out, "How can I spit on this? This picture is of our beloved and respected king!” Swami ji then told him, "The king is sitting in front of you in person. This picture is merely a paper - it does not speak, hear, think or move. But still you did not spit because you see a shadow of your king in i...

To earn his living a Sufi fakir used to work as a ferryman on a river. One day a village pundit wanted to go across the river. The fakir offered to take him across free of charge. He used to charge one or two paisa for the journey. The pundit sat down in the boat and the fakir started rowing. They were the only people in the boat. The pundit asked him, "Can you read and write?" What else can a pundit ask? He wants to teach others whatever he knows himself. We can give to others only what we have. Pundits are obsessed with their so-called knowledge. He could not see the radiance of the fakir, he took him to be an ordinary boatman. But the fakir was an extraordinary man. The pundit did not know that the godliness about which he had been contemplating, hearing and discussing was present in this extraordinary man. It was peeping through him. If he had eyes to see he could have found in the fakir all that he had dreamed about and read about in the scriptures. Something ...

 There was a great saint, Ramdas. Thousands of years after Rama walked on the earth, Ramdas was reciting his story again -- after thousands of years. The way he used to tell the story of Rama was so enchanting, so magnetic, so charismatic, that it is said that Hanuman, the absolute devotee of Rama, who had seen everything with his own eyes, used to come to listen to Ramdas, of course, in disguise. He would sit in the crowd and listen, and he enjoyed it very much. Sometimes it happens that when you are involved in the action itself you can't see the whole thing, the perspective cannot be that big. You are involved in the thing, you are doing your thing, and there are a thousand and one things going on; you cannot be watchful of all. Now the story was finished, completed. Ramdas was telling his disciples the story of Rama, and Hanuman was very happy, utterly glad to come, to listen. Many things that he had only heard through rumors he was listening to again from an auth...