Grace Trumps Karma
Grace trumps karma! Maybe it’s the sign of my entering middle age or perhaps indicative of the fact that I am rather lazy but I am coming to appreciate the idea of divine grace. When I was younger I made the mistake of rejecting it because my understanding of God was of this whimsical, stern despot who demanded servile obedience and punished those who disobeyed him. Yet I was unable to explain why some so-called sinners seemed to live blessed lives while those sinners who committed minor infractions when compared to rape, plunder and pillaging seemed to suffer well beyond what seemed reasonable. It took a “metaphysical” reading of the bible to help me come to terms with that. We’ll get to that shortly.
I blame my somewhat sketchy spiritual formation as a young Catholic for creating an incorrect image of a whimsical God who played favorites and divided sins into felonies (mortal sins) and misdemeanors (venial sins.). It is rather hilarious to think in these terms. The church includes missing mass on the list of mortal sins right along side murder. It turns out that this is just an erroneous teaching and something to be cast aside along with other outmoded things such as the abacus. But such was the spiritual torment of my youth.
It was ideas such as this that sent me packing and I bailed on my faith at the age of 17 and didn’t return until I was in my early 30’s. During that time I tried all kinds of religions and spiritual philosophies on for size. Some fit well while others were snug and confining. Still others seemed so airy and erudite that I found myself lost at sea in ideas that were way beyond my feeble ability to comprehend.
One idea that seemed common to many of these philosophies was Karma. Karma is the name given for the casual relationship between cause and effect. Karma is quite appealing when compared to the notion of the Judeo-Christian concept of a God centered system of reward and punishment. Karma is impersonal…it’s a part of the laws of the universe or the dharma. It just is. When karma is in play we must untangle each and every strand of the web before we can ultimately jump off the wheel of life…reach nirvana…or whatever exalted state you believe. Karma requires that the debts caused by our actions be repaid right down to the last dot. In this way karma can seem harsh and foreboding. It is so impersonal and it doesn’t care what your reasons for any particular action …it meets out the consequences without regard to our human nit picking.
However, there are some teachings such as Sant Mat that purport that a bona fide spiritual master can take years or eons of a soul’s karmic debt earning them relief from untold suffering. In order to receive this spiritual gift one usually receives initiation into the spiritual tradition of the master either from him or her directly or from an authorized representative whereby the “initiate” receives transmission of a portion of this master’s power. The initiate is forever connected to the master through this link.
The link is strengthened through various spiritual practices such as meditation and by sitting at the “diamond lotus feet of the master.” One way this occurs is when the initiate is physically present while the master is giving satsang. An initiate may also receive more of this light when the master gives darshan. Typically darshan is transmitted by looking into the masters eyes. Sometimes the master will infuse his energy in an object often food or by giving you a clump of hair from his beard (if the master is a man. There are many women masters as well. I am not certain what they may offer as I am only familiar with the tradition that I was initiated in. I will defer to another’s knowledge here.)
I need to make it clear that I am not disparaging these beliefs or practices. I am myself an initiate of a Sant Mat path by the late Sant Thakar Singh. I have had the experience of darshan and can testify that there is power there. In fact it is these very teachings that helped reconcile me to the notion of “God’s grace” that I learned from my Catholic upbringing.
It was my master who taught me that when I perceive the inner truth of my spiritual work that I would come to realize that there was no contradictions between my Catholicism and my practice of Sant Mat. In fact I could practice both. It was such encouragement that sent me back to the church of my youth where I sought the sacrament of confirmation. More importantly sitting at the feet of my master I began to understand the notion of grace. I even was able to gain some insight into what the apostle Paul was describing in his letter to the Romans when described “salvation by faith” through the grace of God.
Traditionally mainstream Christianity defines grace as “a gift freely given” without merit of the recipient. In other words the person receiving the gift did nothing to earn it and in many cases may not even be “worthy” of the gift. It is given because of the loving nature of deity. It seemed to me that when we talk about relationship with master or even a more direct relationship with deity we are talking about grace…the power that overrides karma. It’s that power that forgives us our mistakes simply because it loves us and turns a compassionate eye toward us in our plight. It’s the power that lets us move on even if we have not “repaid our indebtedness.” In fact it forgives us our indebtedness outright.
Frankly I like the idea of grace. It seems a more loving way to run the universe. Karma, just like the Judeo-Christian ethic is simply human attempts to describe the spiritual nature of an infinite universe. We might be pointing our finger in the general direction but still are not actually hitting the target. The problem with humanity is that we are in love with punishment. We prefer it over justice although we will often confuse punishment with justice. We want to see the bad guys get what is coming to them. Punishment in human terms is often about revenge and we ascribe this quality to God and speak of “God’s justice.” Yet it is really a human concept of justice that we are describing.
Capital punishment may be one example of our blurring the line between revenge and justice. Another may come in the example of a person who through a momentary act of negligence causes the death of another thereby landing themself in jail. There was no intent to murder nor was their ill will. I am not debating the rightness or wrongness of either scenario. But, rather, suggesting that they may be ways in which we prefer to get even or punish the wrongdoer while convincing our self that it is really just.
God’s love is beyond my understanding that it doesn’t even seem fit to call it love. My love has limitations God’s is infinite. We talk about and aspire to unconditional love but I don’t even know what that means. I am plagued by conditions. All I can do is keeping trying to hit that mark. The notion of grace is that is the result of God’s infinite and unconditional love for his creation. Grace is given freely because the infinite and loving deity of the universe knows that we are not nearly capable of earning anything.
The more time I spend in prayer and meditation and the more time I spend in expressing gratitude for my life the more I realize how my efforts do nothing except to signal to God that I am willing to let him take over. Spiritual exercises accomplish little more than surrendering my free will to the will of God. It expands the ego so that my mortal mind can be filled with a measure of the universal mind. The universal mind views the world through the eyes of God. Mortal Mind views it through the limited eyes of carnality which is petty and judgmental. Carnality only loves when it receives gratification. Therefore it places conditions on love to ensure it gets what it wants.
I just went back and reread what I have written here. I see that once again I have done little more than run around in circles chasing my tail. I see the ideas but can’t quite find the way to convey exactly what I mean. While I see the underlying unity of my outer religion, Catholicism, and my inner religion, Sant Mat they are still two separate ways of describing and experiencing the spiritual nature of the universe. Both seem inadequate to at this moment as I muse in circles about grace.
In the end, even though this is a pitiful explanation, grace trumps karma because it transfigures our souls in the life of God’s love which heals all wounds.