Intention vs Karma
I was giving a talk the other night and someone asked the question, “I have been close to victory in my life on many occasions, and yet they did not manifest. It’s been so frustrating! How does the aspect of intention and karma play into the success of ones life?”
I told the woman that I didn’t want to come up with a flippant answer –– that I wanted to think about it, meditate on it. After a few days, I realized that there is no simple answer to this question. And yet, after thinking about it more, I realized there is a very simple answer.
I believe intention comes from our will, wanting things and situations to turn out a certain way. However, just because we want something and we create the intention for it, it doesn’t mean it’s going to manifest. And even if it does, we may discover that “karmically” it may not be ours to have. We only thought it was. Or perhaps someone else desired it and we thought we wanted it.
A case in point: While in my twenties, all I wanted to do was appear on a Broadway stage and become a successful actress. My intention was quite strong. I worked very hard, learned my craft, and then, after an audition with Neil Simon for his play Chapter Two, my wish came true and I got to Broadway. I was then asked to audition for a soap opera, The Edge of Night. While reading the part, I heard a little voice inside me say: ‘No more repeating other people’s words!’
Just like that. I had no idea where that voice came from and why it appeared at that moment – but there it was pulsating inside me. Now, not everyone listens to those little voices, but I had been trained like an obedient dog from years of meditating. At that moment, I dropped the script. The casting woman asked me if I wanted the part. Startled by own reaction, I told her, “ I don’t think so. I’m going to India”. That was it! I knew my days of being an actress were over. I went to India and never returned to acting again. In other words, it was not my karmic destiny to become a professional actress – even though it was my intention.
If you believe in past lives, you know that we all come to this planet to learn certain lessons, and with that understanding, we are aware that intention only goes so far.
Our accounts receivable and payable from past lives are vast. We have cumulative actions from hundreds of lifetimes; interactions with thousands of people that we come back to either straighten out, repent or grow from. Which is why some people are born with silver spoons in their mouths and other’s are kicked around from birth. Why some people become millionaires and others, no matter how hard they try, will never experience the opulence they yearn for. It’s karma.
I remember one evening while sitting with hundreds of seekers in the Siddha Yoga Ashram in upstate New York. Someone asked Gurumayi a question. The question was: “What is karma?” Gurumayi answered. “You and me.” It was that simple.
Witnessing and distancing ourselves form our desires and intentions, knowing if and when these actions are in fact our karmic destiny –– is and always will be part of an ongoing cosmic dance. When we include the awareness of “effort and grace” –– self-effort and Gods grace, the practice of meditation so we listen and observe, we are shown more quickly if it is our destiny to even have the intentions we desire.
As of late, I find myself recalibrating, shifting into a subtler field of awareness, an introspective mode of operandi where the things I thought I wanted for so many years seem to be drifting down a stream. To synchronize with human beings who experience a similar vibration is one of my intentions and of course to have excellent health, peace of mind, the constant connection to source and enough money to live my life in a pleasurable and beneficial way. Nevertheless, I will keep a stringent watch, an observant eye to see if these intentions are part of my karmic destiny or not.
This is as close as I can come to describe this profound mystery and what is most likely, from a macro perspective, the indescribable.
