My Path to Karma

Recently, I was broached with the topic of what is most important to me and why; here is my answer that I felt was pertinent to share with this community: 

My faith is the most important thing to me. Born and raised in America, I’ve always been acutely aware of my faith, and it’s always proven to be a guiding light for my personal and professional life. There are pillars of Hinduism that are particularly pertinent in my daily life. Karma – the outwards action towards another and the return of that action – is Hinduism’s measure of Return On Investment. Karma carries weight, measuring its worth in the daily tally of good versus bad actions. Dharma is the art of your own actions, integrity and righteousness, with integrity at the root.

When faced with choices, including some that may have led me to where I wanted to go but on a questionable path, I’d stop and ask myself is this aligning with my personal Dharma or not? When given the choice, the universe will show both the difficult challenges and also the short-cuts that are tempting. Avoiding temptation and going on the path of highest resistance is the highest form of my personal Dharma and path to enlightenment.

 When leading teams, projects and meetings I consistently try to uphold my values and integrity.  Another example of my personal dharma and karma; at work, I was on a project with a difficult stakeholder who was key to the success of the project. I worked closely with him to build rapport and to come to an agreement on key decisions, and yet I was never able to convince him to buy into the idea.

I considered escalating to his manager. But I needed to stop and reflect: how would it make him feel? My co-worker is a man with two children, one autistic, and the other in college, once he had briefly expressed how important family was to him. Not to mention, we were all adapting to a global pandemic.

I re-focused my approach on compassion and care towards the co-worker. Instead of focusing on the project, I pulled him into a 1 on 1 asked about his family and children. He immediately softened his approach towards me and I was able to get work done that had been pending on him for completion for three months. Showing compassion for my peers and colleagues knowing that if I didn’t Karma would take care of me. The highest truth is knowing my Dharma is pure. 

I continue to constantly uphold my personal dharma and karma on a daily basis and this I hope will lead to success. To work with compassion, kindness and care with my peers is an honorable path to enlightenment. 

~Live. Love. Laugh. Give.