By Sri Harold Klemp
Sometimes we don’t understand that the tragedy we face has all kinds of experiences involved—if we handle it a certain way, we will end a chain of karma that has probably been going on for centuries. We will resolve a debt that needs to be repaid before one of the individuals involved can gain spiritual freedom.
A man in Africa was deeply saddened one day when his young daughter died suddenly. The mother had taken the child to the hospital, but it hadn’t been for any great illness. Suddenly, because a wrong inoculation was administered by the head nurse, his daughter had passed over to the other side.
As a father, he was very distraught, and he asked the owner of the hospital and the head nurse to come and explain why his daughter was gone. What had they done?
“We didn’t do anything,” they said. “It was just a certain medicine that didn’t work.”
But the man wasn’t satisfied with that. He was so distraught when the nurse told him of his daughter’s death that he just wanted to hit her in anger and frustration.
The day of the funeral arrived. All the neighbors in the community came. The link between families is very strong in some of these communities, and the community came to help him bury his dead child.
But as they stood by the grave, they saw a beautiful golden butterfly hovering over the crowd. Then it flew away. As the father looked closer at the dirt around the grave, he saw a caterpillar. He realized that Soul going into a higher state is like the caterpillar transforming into a butterfly.
While this was going on, he also saw white-and-blue birds—about a dozen of them—flying in a circle right above the crowd.
Yet through all this, he was very upset. He went home, wrapped himself in a sheet, and began to cry and cry. He said, “Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, why have you allowed my daughter to leave like this?”
Soon he fell asleep. While he was asleep, the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ came to him and said, “Have you learned nothing from the ECK teachings? Have you learned nothing? My son, I have tried to teach you, and yet you carry on like a child.”
Suddenly, the scene changed and a room appeared. There was his daughter. She came running up to him and hugged him. After he had hugged her a little while, she began squirming and wanted to get down and run off and play.
The Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ said to the father, “Just wait a minute. I want to show you something. Please hold your daughter.”
A TV appeared on the wall. A movie began to play. The Master said, “We are now going back to the Oracle at Delphi.” As they watched, a scene appeared. Five warriors were in mortal combat. Two of the warriors were the parents of this girl, and this little girl was also fighting. In the scene she was a very strong man. The warrior had taken the life of two other warriors. But then the two warriors who were the husband and wife finally overcame this warrior who was very strong.
The Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ explained, “In that lifetime, your daughter was the very strong warrior and killed these other two warriors in battle. One of the warriors is the owner of the hospital. The other is the head nurse. If you had struck the head nurse in the hospital, she would have died and this would have extended the karma for another round.”
“The only way this karma could resolve,” the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ told him, “was for your young daughter to pay it back here, so she could be released from her last life on this earth.”
Then the father realized that this collection of characters—himself, his wife, his daughter, the owner of the hospital, and the head nurse—weren’t just casual strangers. They had been together before, and they had hurt each other. In this experience, the entire karmic chain was broken. It allowed the daughter to move forward spiritually and never have to return to this earth.
His daughter was now so full of light and happiness. The Master said, “This is how you knew her, and that’s why she has appeared to you in this form.” The daughter could now go on to higher, happier places.
Once he saw and understood this, the man woke up and told his grieving wife the story. They could still grieve the absence of their child, but now they could also understand why this apparent injustice had to occur to their daughter. The man realized it wasn’t injustice at all, but perfect justice.
In ECK we realize that whatever we face—the good karma as well as the bad, the up wave and the down wave—is here only to make us a more experienced Soul who will one day become a full Coworker with God.
