Karmic Conversations

Shriya has been very bothered by the recent kidnapping in Nigeria. 300 odd girls all gone it a flash. She has been religiously following up on the proceedings and will ask everyday if the girls have been returned to their families.

Its beyond her how anyone would want to do something like this.And then she saw a picture in the newspaper of the person who was behind it all surrounded by the poor girls.

'Amma, if they could take a picture of him, why couldn't they catch him'?

I explained to her that the picture would have been clicked by one of the kidnapper's friends and then sent directly to the media.

' But Amma, does he not know that if he does something as bad as this then he will earn bad Karma'?

To Shriya, everything boils down to Karma. If she wastes some food then her first thought is, ' Did I just pile up the bad Karma'? And then, ' Amma, if I waste the food but you are the one who actually dumps it in the bin, then who gets the bad Karma'?

In many ways these Karmic conversations help me, especially as I sort out the petty fights between the siblings. The brother and sister even out their respective Karmas by 'being the better person' and raise their tallies thus.But they have also put me in sticky situations. The other day we were discussing how we were going to volunteer in Singapore. I told them about some of the charities I've been in touch with and how several of them needed help. Shriya quips' I guess all those people who need help now must have collected lots of bad Karma in their previous generation' (which is what she says for previous birth or janma)!!

I'm sure the kidnapper is not as wise as you are, darling.In the meanwhile, we can only pray for those innocents to return back safely to their parents.