THE LAW OF KARMA

 
It is said that there was one day a tussle between Shankar, the Lord and his consort Parvati, in the Heavens. Parvati was being reserved and silent with the Lord, and the Lord asked why she was cross with him. She said: 'How indifferent, how callous you are to your devotees. And this has made me think — is your love for me so very great or are you also callous with me?'

The Lord replied: 'What's the matter? How can I be callous? Everyone is well looked after, everybody is provided for.' (As Meher Baba himself said once: I dare not care not for my lovers.)

'I assure you that you are callous and indifferent to your closest devotees.'

'Why, what has happened?'

And Parvati said: 'Come and see; there is a devotee of yours who spends every day chanting your name, repeating your name, and living only on what people give him to eat. He has left the world, he has nothing to provide for his family, he has dedicated his life to you.'

'Well, that is his lot. And that's how it should be, it will promote his progress on the path to me.'

But she said: 'No, I don't believe in that. You must provide him with some worldly means because he is wholly and solely yours.'

'What do you want me to do, further than what I have already done in my omniscience?'

'I would like you to give him a lot of wealth.'

'Alright, I will give him a lot of wealth, because you want it that way.'

It seems that even God has to submit to the wishes of the consort!

Well, the devotee used to take a regular path from his hut to the market place where he would beg. And throughout the day and night he would chant the name of the Lord. So while he was walking towards the market place that day, a thought came to mind: I am getting older, and the world seems to be changing, there doesn't seem to be the same compassion and pity in people as previously. I shall have to do something more in order to draw upon the compassion of mankind. What if I were to pose as being blind? Then they might be drawn to give me more.

So on the very day that the Lord throws down from the heavens a sack full of gold on the path that the devotee takes each day, the devotee decides to practise blindness. He shuts his eyes, walks with closed eyes so that he can draw upon himself the mercy of mankind, and he walks right past the gold that is lying there on the path.

The Lord looks at his consort and says: 'See, that is the law of Karma. According to what is determined as your share in life, that much is yours and no more.'