A man who had been living a miserable life for a long time after great deliberation thought that his sufferings might cease if he got initiation into spiritual life. He, therefore, went to a famous Rishi and sought his blessings. He was initiated and found real joy in the new life that he adopted.
But occasionally mishaps and calamities came to him. This used to make him very impatient and he used to run up to his Guru on such occasions. Once the latter after giving him a patient hearing said, “Everybody has to exhaust the consequences of the Karma of his past lives; nobody can avoid or resist them. Even a self-realised saint cannot take upon himself the consequences of another man’s karma by way of vicarious atonement; only God-incarnations can do so. Thus you see the mother of Sri Ramachandra, who was God-incarnate, had to undergo many sufferings in her life, and though the Pandavas were supported and helped by Sri Krishna himself, they could not avoid sufferings which followed them throughout their lives. Jada Bharat was a saint of high order, but he had to be reborn as a deer as he could not resist thinking of a young deer, which had been brought up by him in his hermitage, at the time of his death. None, therefore, can avoid the inevitable consequences of karma.”