EVERYONE must reap the result of his past Karma. One must admit the influence of tendencies inherited from the past births and the result of the Prarabdha karma. And one must remember that pleasure and pain are the characteristics of the embodied state. In Kavi Kankan’s Chandi it is written that Kaluvir was sent to prison and a heavy stone placed on his chest. Yet Kalu was born as the result of a boon from the Divine Mother of the Universe. Thus pleasure and pain are inevitable when one accepts a body. Again, take the case of Srimanta, who was a great devotee. Though his mother, Khullana, was very much devoted to the Divine Mother, there was no end to his troubles. He was almost beheaded. There is also the instance of the wood-cutter who was a great lover of the Divine Mother. She appeared before him and showed him much grace and love; but he had to continue his profession of wood-culling, and earn his livelihood by that arduous work. Again, while Devaki, Krishna’s Mother, was in the prison she had a vision of God Himself endowed with four hands, holding mace, discus, conch-shell and lotus. But with all that she could not get out of the prison. (58)