An allegory

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 16 February 2010, Cape Town, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavadam 7.4.12)

We are bound up in so much karma and we drag it with us. One cannot just walk away from it. That is the nature of karma.

One man was walking in the Himalayas, he was at the foothills. He was feeling great fatigue and had a desire for a horse! And lo and behold, there was a horse… a divine arrangement! So, he paid a good price for that horse and was happy. But then, the horse would not move! That was the complication… he jumped on the horse and still it would not move… he tried everything… he looked for the hand-brake but no success!

Then, just as he was about to give up, suddenly from that horse fell a little foal. He thought, “My lucky day… two for the price of one!” and he jumped on the horse again but the horse would not move. This time because the little foal was too small to walk. We could understand that but he could not wait for this little horse to grow up. Then, finally he decided to move on… he took the little horse on his shoulders and the big horse was following and in this way, was walking up the mountain!

Someone asked him, “What are you doing? Why are you carrying this little horse on your shoulder?”

The man said, “It’s a long story but it’s my lucky day… ” and told the full story.

The person asked, “Why don’t you just leave them behind, give them up?”

The man said, “No… no… no! How can I do that? I have invested a lot of money in these horses so how can I leave then behind.”

This is the nature of karma. We have invested in certain activities and are entangled in a network of attachment, positive and negative, and we just can’t get out… we can’t let go!

But, we should say, just forget it, leave it, leave everything you are doing. You have come to Krsna… you have come to spiritual life and there is no more need for this… your karma stops here!