In yogic and Buddhist philosophy, this world we inhabit is one wherein we must repay our karmic debts. Many of my own teachers have said that this world is nothing but an experience of pain. Yes – Pain. The entire purpose of our existence on this world at this time is to pay back our debts.
Fortunately, we can also accrue credits that can help us get out of here and on to a better place. And the whole point of yoga is more than just enlightenment, it is an end to all suffering, not just your own. I heard Yogi Gupta say “Yoga is doing anything to make the world better.” The practice of yoga is that simple.
Paying off our debts would be far easier if we were also not continually racking up more of them. As Krishna told Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra: “Those who are attached to personal reward will reap the consequences of their actions: some pleasant, some unpleasant, some mixed. But those who renounce every desire for personal reward go beyond the reach of karma.”
Krishna further taught that merely abstaining from action would not lead to enlightenment but rather he offered a path of transcendent action (naishkarmya-karman).
We share karma with our family, our community, our country, and the entire planet. So, we are obligated to help expire those karma a to alleviate all suffering.
Compassion literally means “to suffer with.”  Biting your tongue and turning a blind eye when you bear witness to suffering, especially when you know the cause of is not an example of compassion. It simply allows the suffering of others to continue. This indifference is irresponsible.  Love and compassion are active, not passive.
Non action not the same as nonviolence.  In fact, I the face of cruelty and evil it can increase your karmic debt.
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, but indifference between life and death.” ~Elie Wiesel
Karma is how samsara (conditional existence) in this world maintains itself and in order to escape the law of karma, one must go beyond the ego to transcend into pure consciousness, pure love.

We can see that right action is an expression of love and compassion.  We do it because its right, because its love, and because it must be done to end suffering in this world and help us to stop building new karmas to burn off.

We’re all in this together….
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