KARMA
In a village lived a poor man. He cycled his way to the steel factory where he worked as a worker. Poverty allowed him and his wife to eat only two meals a day. One fine evening his wife bore him a son. He and she became elated, as they became father and mother. Father was worried now. He had to do something to feed the new member in their house. He tried hard and got a job in the same factory as a clerk. Years passed with the family able to keep their soul and body together. The father was still working in the factory as a clerk. Son became twenty- four and told his father he runs a business at night. Every morning the son presented his father with a bag full of money. Father never questioned presuming his son’s business the source and the son never divulged. Father put the money to good use, buying property in every nook and corner of the town. He bought houses and shops and rented them. Huge rental money started to flow in. Father quit the job. One morning the son did not turn up with the bag. Father became worried. Bell rang and brought in police with the body of the son. The son’s night business was smuggling and sometimes kidnapping. And last night luck left him and he was killed in an encounter. The father-mother could not trust the police but at last, they made peace with themselves that their son had lied to them.
The son’s soul was taken to hell. There the guards informed him that after thirty years, his father and mother would join him as they have prospered by his blood money. The son pleaded the guards to find a way to atone his parents of his sins. The guards told their head and the head consulted God. God moved by the son’s concern for his parents decided to help.
God sent him back to earth as a reincarnation to his parents. The parents were glad to have a son again at fifty. It was a miracle and indeed, it was. This time his physical body had two holes in the heart. One for the father and the other for the mother. The father sold half of the property to fill the first hole. The second hole consumed the other half for filling. Still they were short of money. The father sold the bungalow and deposited the whole money in the hospital for treatment expenses. As he reached the room of his son in the hospital, he fell on his knees on finding his son dead. The couple was forced to move to their poor hut in the village. The father started to work in the factory as a clerk again. He found it difficult but clung to it. The son stayed in hell receiving punishments for his sins. The couple now spent their days in the name of the God. After thirty years, both left their bodies’ together. As their souls passed over hell, the guards told them about the atonement of their sins because of the son. Father-mother blessed him. They stood there for a quite few time blessing their son. The son got some reprieve from the punishments inflicted on him in hell. He was surprised and saw up. The son and the father-mother wept silently with the tears of father-mother falling on their son’s face, relieving him of some pain. The God moved by the scene forgave the sins of the son. He joined his parents in heaven for saving them from the circle of bad karma.
--- Atul Sharma.
--- Photo Credit, David Niblack, Imagebase.net
