In plain words
The fruit of karma always goes with us
Can the bond of karma ever be overcome! The Pāṇḍavas of old were driven to the forests and lived on leaves and roots. The Pāṇḍavas, who had eaten feasts of every delicacy, now eating leaves and roots: how could that be? Here is a fine example of how karma works. A man was in distress, saying that because the planet Śani was afflicting him, poverty had held him for seven and a half years. He sat praying to Īśvara. One day Īśvara appeared before him. ‘What is your trouble?’ asked Īśvara. He said, ‘Śani has had hold of me and has been tormenting me for seven and a half years.’ He asked Him to send that planet Śani away. ‘Very well, I will speak to Śani,’ He said, and vanished. He went to Kailāsa, sent for Śani and asked, ‘I hear you are tormenting My devotee badly. Are you so strong? Show your strength on Me.’ To this Śani said, ‘Very well, I will show it on You,’ and went away from there. From that day Īśvara was watching for the moment Śani would come. ‘If I am in heaven, in Vaikuṇṭha or in Kailāsa, he will find Me. So I must hide in some other place that Śani cannot reach,’ Īśvara reasoned. Then by His own will He changed His body to the size of an ant and went to stay in the hollow of a tree. He waited in this tree hollow for three months. Śani did not come. Reasoning that Śani had no courage, He went back to Kailāsa and sent for him. ‘For three months you have not come near Me; you could not catch Me,’ He said. Then Śani said, ‘Swāmī! Only because I had caught You did You, who belong in Kailāsa, have to stay in a tree hollow. That itself is my power,’ he said. Then He understood that Śani's grip works not directly but indirectly. So this is just how the fruit of karma works. Karma has no form. It does not stay in one place. It is always right there with you. ‘Sin is not something apart, in some foreign land; it clings to the deeds one does. God is not in some separate land; He is bound up with the deeds one does.’ Just as one's shadow follows one, so karma too stays right with us.