If Karma Was Fair, Why Are You Still the One in Pain? The Gita Answers
Riya Kumari | Jul 18, 2025, 17:04 IST
( Image credit : Times Life Bureau )
Highlight of the story: So, here you are. Crying in your Uber, silently judging the driver's playlist (Nickelback? Bold choice), wondering why your life feels like a tragic spin-off of a rom-com where the girl doesn’t get the guy, just a therapist bill and a full punch card at her local pharmacy. We like our karma like we like our Amazon deliveries, fast, accurate, and preferably with free returns. But the Gita says, lol, no.
There comes a moment, usually somewhere between heartbreak and another dead-end job interview—when you sit down and ask, “Why me?” Not in the dramatic, self-pitying sense. But in that quiet, exhausted, bone-deep ache where logic doesn’t help and motivational quotes feel like insults. You’ve been kind. You’ve done your part. You’ve taken the hit and chosen grace instead of revenge. And still, it hurts. Worse, it seems the people who broke you get away with it. They move on. Smile in pictures. Start podcasts. So what’s the deal? Isn’t karma supposed to fix this? Let’s talk honestly. Because what the Gita teaches about pain and karma isn’t about fairness. It’s about freedom. But only if you’re willing to understand it not with your anger, but with your maturity.
1. Karma isn’t a scoreboard. It’s a mirror
The popular version of karma feels transactional: "Be good, get good. Be awful, get hit by a truck." But the Gita never promises that. Karma isn’t your cosmic hitman. In truth, karma isn’t even about justice. It’s about growth. It’s not interested in rewarding you. It’s interested in revealing you. Every painful moment is showing you who you are when things don't go your way.
How you treat people when they can’t help you. What you cling to when everything else slips. That’s the karma that matters, not what happens to them, but what gets exposed in you.
2. Pain isn’t proof of failure. It’s part of the design
You think you're doing something wrong because it hurts. You're not. Pain isn’t punishment. It’s feedback. According to the Gita, this life is a classroom, not a courtroom. Suffering isn’t karma’s punishment, it’s life’s teacher. And the lesson is never, “You deserved this.”
The real question is always, “What are you becoming because of this?” It’s hard. But growth is supposed to be. Butterflies don’t get to skip the cocoon just because they’re tired. Neither do we.
3. Their karma is not your closure
One of the hardest pills the Gita gives us is this: You don’t get to see how someone else’s karma plays out. Not on your timeline. Not for your satisfaction. You think closure is justice. But real closure is this: “I did what was right. I stayed true to myself. I didn’t become like them.”
That’s not weakness. That’s integrity. And in the Gita, integrity matters more than victory. Because victories fade. But who you are, that echoes far beyond this lifetime.
4. Letting go isn’t passive. It’s powerful
“Let go of the results,” Krishna says. Easier said than done, right? Especially when your heart's still bruised and your mind keeps reloading the same old betrayal on loop. But letting go doesn’t mean stop caring. It means stop controlling.
It means doing what’s right, not because it guarantees reward, but because it aligns you with your higher self. Control is exhausting. Detachment is clarity. And clarity is where peace begins.
5. You are not stuck. You are being shaped
When you’re in pain, it feels like karma forgot you. But the Gita reminds us: You’re not being ignored. You’re being refined. Not to break. To become. Everything you’ve endured, the betrayal, the loneliness, the wait, is preparing you. Not for vengeance. But for strength. Stillness. Self-mastery.
So no, karma is not fair. It’s wiser than fairness. It’s less interested in making sure people get what they deserve and more focused on making sure you rise.
Karma Doesn’t Work for Your Ego. It Works for Your Evolution
If you’re waiting for karma to humiliate the ones who hurt you, you’re still stuck in their story. But the Gita wants you to write a new one. It doesn’t promise fairness. It promises freedom, from bitterness, from resentment, from the need to watch someone else fall. Not because they don’t deserve it. But because you deserve peace more.
And maybe that’s the kind of justice we never expect: The day you no longer care what happens to them. Because you’re too busy becoming everything they never had the power to destroy. Let that sink in. Then let it go.
1. Karma isn’t a scoreboard. It’s a mirror
How you treat people when they can’t help you. What you cling to when everything else slips. That’s the karma that matters, not what happens to them, but what gets exposed in you.
2. Pain isn’t proof of failure. It’s part of the design
The real question is always, “What are you becoming because of this?” It’s hard. But growth is supposed to be. Butterflies don’t get to skip the cocoon just because they’re tired. Neither do we.
3. Their karma is not your closure
That’s not weakness. That’s integrity. And in the Gita, integrity matters more than victory. Because victories fade. But who you are, that echoes far beyond this lifetime.
4. Letting go isn’t passive. It’s powerful
It means doing what’s right, not because it guarantees reward, but because it aligns you with your higher self. Control is exhausting. Detachment is clarity. And clarity is where peace begins.
5. You are not stuck. You are being shaped
So no, karma is not fair. It’s wiser than fairness. It’s less interested in making sure people get what they deserve and more focused on making sure you rise.
Karma Doesn’t Work for Your Ego. It Works for Your Evolution
And maybe that’s the kind of justice we never expect: The day you no longer care what happens to them. Because you’re too busy becoming everything they never had the power to destroy. Let that sink in. Then let it go.