But even at the present stage, that past shows itself in the accumulated faculties and powers of the person and the voice of conscience, which is but the effort of the soul to guide its lower nature along lines found by experience to be the best. Back to Table of Contents Karma and Liberation Evolution proceeds under a law as unerring as any well-established scientific law, namely, that of karma or the law of cause and effect. Each action, each desire, each thought, produces its result with unfailing certainty. As a person sows, so shall he also reap. This makes perfection possible, for knowledge is power, and when a person knows the law and works with it, he can produce any result he chooses, he becomes master of his destiny.
Thought is the most potent factor in the creation of causes.
Each thought affects the mental body for good or evil, and as mental faculties are the powers of the soul working in the mental body, the mentality shown in any one life is the result of repeated thinking in past lives. Hence the splendid mental apparatus of the person of genius is not a gratuitous gift, but is due to hard work in the past. Thought is also the parent of action, and its subtle vibrations, traveling through space, affect others, awakening similar thoughts in the minds attuned to the same key. Many a thought has thus urged other men to actions, good or evil, in which the thinker has his share of responsibility. As thoughts evolve the mental body, so desires evolve the astral body, and also influence others by their far-reaching vibrations.