Settling Karmic Debts

Once Kanchi Paramachariar was suffering from stomach ache. Those who were with him saw this and cried, ‘Why such a hardship for Periyava himself?’

Paramachariar replied ‘I myself have taken this birth to undergo the pains of the balance karma and leave the mortal body, why are you crying?’ Once Adi Shankara Bhagavatapada prayed to God, ‘Oh God! I have committed one mistake already and I am going to do another mistake also so please forgive me’.

What he meant was that his first mistake was : ‘In the previous birth I did not pray to you. So I have taken this birth. Next mistake is that I will not pray to you in my next birth because I have prayed to you in this birth, so I have no births then how can I pray to you in my next birth?’ What a great argument!

So all that you have to do is don’t worry about your past karma, but have total faith in God and lead the life that God has destined for you. There is a mess in a thread ball. If you hurry through the mess, you will make it still worse. If you catch hold of its end and slowly remove the knots, then you can use it for stitching or else it will get cut.

Self Realization involves knowing the presence of the Lord in everyone and realizing that the same soul exists within everyone.