Ancestral karma

Picture Credit: Lakshmi Ambady

“Your Karma is not in what is happening to you. Your Karma is in the way you experience and respond to what is happening to you.”- Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.

We often think of memory as something that begins with us. Our own lived experiences of, and with the world around us stored in our brains. But memory extends beyond the individual.  We are all born into stories already in the process of unfolding. Long before our first breath, our nervous systems were being shaped not just by our mother’s heartbeat but also by the unprocessed experiences of generations before us. Ancient traditions call this Ancestral Karma. Hinduism calls it Pitru Dosh. In modern science, it is seen as the intergenerational transmission of trauma through biology, psychology and nervous system imprinting. The field of this transmission is the space called the Morphic Field. But to know what this field really is- that is a reading for another time. Since this is the period of Pitru Paksha I would like to introduce the ancestral karma we all carry and how it can be resolved within us.

Ancestral karma is the concept that the consequences of the thoughts, actions and deeds of one’s ancestors are passed down to their descendants, thus influencing their lives, circumstances and personality and behavioural traits. We do not inherit just genetic material but also a karmic debt or a legacy from our family lineage. Families are karmically connected, and the unresolved issues, patterns and traumas of the past generations can manifest in the present generation until they’re acknowledged and healed. Same is the case with tendencies or affinities. An easy everyday example we can all relate to is- You have a friend who is a doctor. The likelihood of him/ her marrying another doctor is extremely high. Their offspring also will most likely follow the same profession as the parents. The same way a tailor’s son is mostly a tailor. A policeman’s son mostly is a policeman. To further this concept into psychological and behavioural attitudes- A family who has a history of cheating will find the same behaviour is repeated in their offspring or a family with members having depression or mental issues will have progeny with the same behavioural and psychological material perpetuated through genes in their children. An angry mother will have an angry son. A subservient mother will have a child who is afraid to speak. These are not just genetic patterns or children simply watching their parents’ behaviour. This is a coherence of genes, actions and their results all together held through morphic resonance. When delivered as a package by Mother nature through a child, it forms ancestral karma for that child. And as the behaviour is reinforced through childhood, teens and adulthood without self- reflection or awareness of what us being carried, the bond of ancestral karma gets stronger, repetitive and dramatic. And we have generational trauma emerging.

The nervous system is the most ancient storyteller in the human body. While your conscious mind forgets as designed by evolution and nature itself- Alas! The body does not. A child whose grandparents survived war, or the holocaust may grow up to be hypervigilant, startled by sudden sounds as if expecting an attack. The daughter of a famine survivor may grow up with food anxiety. Descendants of communities that were oppressed may find their throat tighten. Studies on Japanese families who were exposed to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have shown that their children not only inherit cancer and skin issues but also irrational fears and aversion to bright lights and loud sounds. War veterans from the Vietnam war- their children who are born long after they came back from Vietnam back to USA have been diagnosed with PTSD, depression and anxiety. This is all without any of these descendants having direct exposure to what their ancestry faced and endured. Another example is unexplained phobias like fear of water or heights. Cycles of poverty, addictions, divorce, abuse often repeat through generations. From a psychological lens, often a highly sensitive family member may unconsciously take on the emotions, pain and unfinished business of an ancestor, feeling as if it was their own. Ancestral karma is simply cellular memory carried forward through the same morphic field lingering through generations. Waiting to find expression.

Medically, it is known that stress and trauma can cause genes to turn off or on. Epigenetics shows how gene expression is shaped by environment and experience. Trauma alters the way gene changes can be passed to descendants. But we are not condemned to repeat the past patterns. The human brain is neuroplastic and can be rewired. Genes respond to changes in the environment.

The purpose of identifying ancestral karma is to break the cycle and achieve liberation for oneself and the lineage. The first step is to recognize the pattern being repeated. Consciously choosing to act differently than the inherited pattern. Lifestyle changes, mindfulness, Yoga, meditation, Somatic Experiencing®, EFT, Family Constellations therapy, EMDR help discharge the stored traumatic energy, completing cycles left unfinished in the past. Secure attachment and compassionate caregiving post birth can alter brain function and epigenetic expression in progeny.

Healing is both personal and ancestral. Pitru Paksha is a yearly time in Hinduism where we honour our ancestors and seek their guidance and blessings. The goal of engaging with ancestral karma is awareness and liberation. We are our ancestors. Because we carry their imprints within us. But Mother Nature has given us a choice not to be like them. We can choose to respond differently.  Question is what to do you choose? The seat of suffering or the road to freedom.