A Reason to Be Happy

[Listen to Asha read this story]

(Told by an Ananda devotee)

Circumstances brought me into daily contact with a woman I simply couldn’t get along with. Everything about her irritated me. Nothing in the present explained the intensity of my negative feelings. It had to be unresolved karma from the past.

Finally, circumstances changed. Where before we had met almost daily, now we met only occasionally. Absence made my heart grow fonder. Viewing her from a distance, I came to appreciate her many fine qualities. Respect, and then affection, grew in my heart. When we found ourselves traveling together, I felt so kindly toward her I invited her to share my accommodations.

After only one day, however, I became as irritated and upset with her as ever. I thought I had grown in love and forgiveness; in fact, it was just a karmic intermission. Tearfully, I explained to Swamiji how disappointed I was with myself.

“I understand why you feel that way,” Swamiji said. “But here’s another way to look at it. You thought the karma was over, when in fact it was just under the surface, waiting to re-emerge. If this hadn’t happened, the karma might have gone on for more incarnations, since you weren’t putting out the energy needed to overcome it. Now you know and can get to work on it. This is a reason to be happy, not to weep.”

As Master said: Conditions and circumstances are always neutral. It is one's attitude that makes them seem happy or sad.