Message #41688

[mccoy]

I keep appreciating the prayers, here it's a continuous challenge, dealing with a serious mental illness (autism) of my son, with times when the challenge relaxes a little and times when it gets hard again. Other parents whom I know have similar challenges, that's a karmic plight where the main karmic recipient drags the family into a group karma situation.

I also like to see it another way. A soul must atone for the sin incurred in past lives. Mental illness is a way to atone for serious sins in an incarnation (or more incarnations).

Such a soul is helped to work out its bad karma by people such as parents, friends, relatives, and so on. The help is a karmic obligation. I'm absolutely sure about it.

Of course, willingness to adapt to this karmic obligation is not without its karmic rewards.

And, helping to work out the karma of others puts us in a situation where we'll be helped when in need.

Somewhere I remember the law of helping exposed by Paramhansa Yogananda, that was a very clear and interesting illustration but I don't remember exactly where it is.