To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

Karma / 65
heal; if only I could bring surcease of pain.’’ As I have
grown older I have come to realize that this may not be the
wisest and most compassionate way to help. I have come to
understand that the kindest and most e¤ective way to sustain
another is to help him find the courage and the love
and the confidence to meet his karma creatively. Of course
we should use the medical aids that are normally available,
but let us allow our friend the honor and the dignity of
recognizing that he has the capacity to handle his karma
with understanding. Maybe his body will die earlier than
the norm, but in meeting the karma that is his, he is accepting
consciously the privilege of working through a heavy
karmic experience for a beneficent purpose. There is solace
and strength for both the dying and the living in being able
to take this attitude.
How best can we stand by? By getting down and weeping
with our friend? Yes, there may be tears, tears of understanding
and love, not of pity and despondency; tears of
recognition that the soul has the courage to take on a severe
ordeal, knowing that a great cleansing process is going on, a
clearing of the karma for the future. It doesn’t need a lot of
words — words are often quite unnecessary. But there has
to be a willingness to be strong, steadfast, and loyal, so that
our friend may draw on our caring strength when he most
needs it.
How do we know what the soul must undergo to be
truly free? How do we know that the terrible su¤ering,
which may in a sense be worse for the bystander than for
the one going through it, is not the very karma that the soul
has been yearning for? But to shrug o¤ another’s pain is