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The following is from the Vedic Scriptures on karma, Dancing with Siva:

In the highest sense, there is no good or bad karma. All experience offers opportunities for spiritual growth. Selfless, kind acts yield positive, uplifting conditions. Selfish acts yield conditions of negativity and confusion.

Karma itself is neither good nor bad, but a neutral principle that governs energy and motion of thought, word, and deed. All experiences help us grow. Good, loving actions bring us lovingness through others. Mean, selfish acts return to us pain and suffering. Kindness produces sweet fruits, called, “punya.” Unkindness yields spoiled fruits, called, “papa.” As we mature, life after life, we go through much pain and joy. Actions that are in tune with our destiny, or dharma, help us along the path, while wrong actions impede or slow down our progress. The divine law is that whatever karma we are experiencing in our life is just what we need at the moment, and nothing can happen but that we have the strength to meet it. Even harsh karma, when faced with wisdom, can be the greatest catalyst for spiritual enfoldment. Performing daily tasks, keeping good company, going to holy places, seeing to others’ needs—all evoke the higher energies, direct the mind to useful thoughts, and avoid the creation of troublesome new karma. The Vedas explain, “According as one behaves, so does he become. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, bad by bad action.

During my life, I have had the good fortune to work with a masterful group of teachers and angels who come through to me in meditation, dreams, automatic writing, whenever I am driving a car—one of my most receptive times—or while I am channeling. They come whenever I need an answer or redirection, or to offer insight. Why Am I Here? is the offspring of this information.

I have come to know some of my guides extremely well, particularly those who have been with me through my entire life. One of these is Babaji, who in Hinduism is revered as the Father. To me he is a patient and very blessed teacher. Babaji first appeared at my bedside when I was four years old, looking remarkably like Santa Claus with a dark tan. Through Babaji and his equally holy sister, and feminine counterpart, Mataji, I was carefully, but pointedly, guided to the world beyond conventional Western thought.

Other guides come and go for different purposes, and some, I have learned, have been with me over many lifetimes. Of these, I have had particular influence from members of the Self-Realization Fellowship. This organization, with which Babaji and Mataji are fundamentally involved, is written about extensively by its founder, Paramahansa Yogananda, in his extraordinary book Autobiography of a Yogi. The principle tenet of self-realization is that the purpose of life is evolution. This is accomplished through self-effort, says Yogananda, and through “lifting of man’s limited mortal consciousness into God Consciousness.” Self-realization is the knowledge that “we share kinship with God, and possess a superiority of mind over body, and soul over mind.”

Through my work with master teachers, life-work with individuals on clairvoyant or intuitive levels, and through my own readings, I have become convinced of these and other spiritual truths. Many of these are offered in Why Am I Here? in the hopes that they will be of interest and service to you.