SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE

In his discussion of the Mundaka Upanishad, Swami Prabhavananda makes the point that we are born into this world to gain spiritual experience.

Our lives are the the working out of our accumulated good and bad karmas, he says, not something that we are consciously doing but something that our lives are doing, and in the process we gain spiritual experience.

Good karma comes when we do something that moves us closer to awakening, the ultimate goal and purpose of life.  Bad karma comes when we do something that moves us away from that goal.

With awakening, all new karmas are erased, but all past karmas must still play themselves out, which is why even saints can suffer misfortune.