The Grace That We Give

Karma is destiny’s calling. The smiles and bruises we give, troop back to us in (as the famous Gladiator once said) this birth or the next. (Likely to be this, as I’ve seen God getting to be progressively more impatient). The things we twist, the generosities we quietly lay out like sunlight, the hypocrisies we ooze in our sanctimonious smiles - we might not get our just desserts in this birth but we are definitely found out and scorned for what we really are.

 

The belief has, I must confess, given me satisfaction whenever I have encountered the worst of humanity and not been able to do much about it. But much more than the illusory future retribution, I have seen life come by with its lessons and lesions in ways too subtle, too meaningful to brush away.

 

A rampaging mean lying boss who gets a son who steadily gets to become the same. The deep conjugal misery of an acquaintance who only has a warped opinion of everyone. A serial adulterer who has health problems galore. I see cause and effect everywhere. Friends say I’m giving logic the widest  canvas possible, and life anyway has these instances of good fortune/bad fortune, heartache and woe in the normal course of life. Of course it does. But grant me my satisfaction.

 

But the greater imperative is the multiplier effect of all that we do. The universe we inhabit is far more sensitive and absorbing of what we say and do. We don’t always realise it, but our nature is also prone to go viral - things we say, things we do, and not only when there is extreme good or extreme vileness. And simply by being ourselves, we affect people around us, who in turn touch the senses of those whose lives they touch, and so on and so forth. Without realising things change, because of us.

 

And thus the good we do finds a way back to us. Nothing beautiful we have achieved has ever happened in splendid isolation. We are plugged into the sensory ether of the universe, and there are waves which carry us up - and it’s the infinite grace of our doing which takes us to places which we wouldn’t even conceive of reaching.

 

If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on the mystery of karma and life:

• Tenderness in the Pause
• This: One Grace
• Aaschi: a promise

Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.

Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com

Subscribe to my incandescent and poetic newsletter The Uncuts here - https://theuncuts.substack.com.

 

Following is the music used in this episode -

 

Music: Village Ambiance by Alexander Nakarada
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/6586-village-ambiance
Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

 

Music: Army Of The Dead by Alexander Nakarada
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/10276-army-of-the-dead
Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license