Karma is not a bitch
Karma is really White people’s culture right now, isn’t it? And if you ask me there’s no bigger measure (or indication, if you will) of this then the way there is now “Instant Karma” – as if Karma is McDonald’s and you have a drive through version to load up on.
It’s interesting that obsessive yoga, trips to Bali or Rishikesh and self-proclaimed moments of enlightenment and flirtations with spirituality has not yet cemented the true meaning of Karma in the broader world; that while the technical definition differs across religions, one of the pillars of Karma is that your actions shape your future consequences and your future. Key here being “future” and “one of the pillars”.
Instead, it has somehow been streamlined and morphed into the idea of good things happen to good people while bad things happen to bad people. And that somehow, because of the brutality of what is coming for you, Karma is a bitch. Like most concepts in pop psychology, this is not wrong.
But it’s not the right picture either.
Because what Karma is associated with from this point of view is payback. Reimbursement. Compensation.
So that you get to feel that you did the right thing. And the person who did you wrong got what they deserved. A form of self-gratification that justice has been meted out.
But here’s the thing. Who made you judge and jury to determine that what you did was right?
What makes you so confident that you should be rewarded for your actions while presumably, another should be punished?
I only ask this because we don’t just have blinders on when it comes to ourselves, but because everyone has, in a way, done something wrong based on the butterfly effect. Perhaps we closed a lift door on someone meaning their entire day’s events delayed which resulted in them being in an accident. Maybe we sneezed too loudly, and an entire policy had to be overturned.
In other words, much like our unwilling participation in the capitalist system, we all have blood on our hands one way or another. So don’t we all have something coming for us? Big or small?
Perhaps I took a dark turn here. Because at the end of the day, most use Karma to ascribe meaning or purpose to actions and consequences we have no control over; we use Karma to trick and comfort ourselves. That everything has a reasoning, a cause and effect, even if it’s not immediate. And because many of us have a tendency to go near blind when wronged, we use Karma to make ourselves feel better, and if actually effected, almost superior when we experience vindication. “I told you. Karma is a bitch.”
Now, Karma is not something to live in fear of, or to mould your actions in accordance to. The simplest way I see it is:
“You have a right over your action, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your action. Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction.” - Bhagavad Gita
And this is why the idea of using Karma to describe getting a job, a marriage, pregnancy particularly bothers me. Don’t get me wrong, it's FANTASTIC if you feel you got what you deserve in life in a positive way. But I implore you to think of your cavalier use of Karma. What did someone do so wrong if they didn't get what they so badly want? Especially when used in situations like pregnancies when women are already held to unrealistic standards and have a poor card dealt biologically? Or is that just Karma being a bitch to them, then? Because I’m sure life would have taught most by now that everything is completely arbitrary. Bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people and people die without meaning or just.
Which is why Karma is not your decree to declare. Nor is it a bitch.
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