Karma and Rebirth

Author(s): Christmas Humphereys
Publisher: Albemarle Street London

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Man as Karma
“Life becomes what it does.” There, in five words, is the essence of the Law. It follows that “human history, from one! point of view is nothing but a record of the Karma of Humanity, working itself out according to the good or evil of our racial, national and personal deeds.” 1
Man is his Karma, and his deeds are part of him. Hence Maeterlinck's famous saying, “Let us always remember that nothing befalls us that is not of the nature of ourselves.” Or, to quote from Edwin Arnold's Light of Asia,
Karma-all that total of a soul Which is the things it did, the thoughts it had, The 'Self' it wove-with woof of viewless time
Crossed on the warp invisible of acts— ... Compounded of good and evil, man as we know him is good in proportion as he has found the Light within, and learnt to “ let the Light shine”; and he is bad to the extent that he is still under the dominance of Maya, illusion, and lets himself be led by the lower, personal desire.
Trishna, that thirst which makes the living drink Decper and deeper of the false salt waves Whereon they float, pleasures, ambition, wealth, Praise, fame or domination, conquest, love; Rich rneats and robes, and fair abodes and pride Of ancient lines, and lust of days, and strife To live, and sins that flow from strife, some sweet,
Somc bitter ... Yet once again it must be emphasized that the soul, wherein the ceaseless warfare between light and darkness, right and wrong is waged, is not immortal nor eternal ; still less is it changeless, for it is changing as a handful of a river changes, with every new thought and act that leaves or enters the whirlpool of the soul. 1 Mysticism of East and West, Loftus Hare.
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