My mysterious cough
This incident occurred during my corporate days. I was in the train on my way to the office, hoping to catch a few moments of sleep.
A woman seated next to me began coughing almost continuously. The sound woke me up, and I felt irritated.
Irked, I thought to myself, “Why is this woman coughing so much? Can she not stop it?”
About a week or two later, I came down with a bad cold. Normally, when I catch a cold, I experience body ache but no cough. This time, however, I developed a persistent, mysterious cough that lasted nearly two months.
It would usually begin in the evenings, with long spells of continuous coughing. One night, it started around 7 pm and did not subside until nearly 1 am.
All my reports were clear. The doctor said it could be some kind of allergy cough, though it was hard to determine the cause of the allergy.
Karmically, I knew the reason for the cough. Each time I had a cough attack I remembered that woman who was coughing whom I had scorned. I learnt my lesson the hard way.
Reflection
It was only a thought, yet I faced the karmic backlash for two months. Imagine, then, the karmic weight carried by harmful actions — violence, cruelty, war, and injustice.
Much of the unrest we see in the world may be the surfacing of accumulated karmas seeking resolution and balance.
In A World Beyond, Ruth Montgomery shares a teaching attributed to the spirit guide Arthur Ford: our thoughts carry the same weight as actions. In the spiritual realm, thoughts are considered as real and consequential as deeds.
Which means that whatever we send out, in thought or action, eventually finds its way back to us.
