The Story- A Karmic Trap

The Master and the Young Woman
It was a bright, sunny day when an enlightened master entered a small village. The air buzzed with excitement for people knew that whenever he came, he offered guidance and revelations that cleared through confusion and doubts. Many had walked away lighter, clearer and transformed by his words and guidance.

That day, among the crowd gathered around him, a young woman stood quietly. Her face carried the weight of sorrow, her eyes reflected loneliness and she seemed broken with untold pain. The master, observing from a distance, could already sense her brokenness.
When her turn finally came, she stepped forward hesitantly. With trembling voice, she shared her heart – “I loved this person… but he married another woman.”

The master looked straight into her eyes—his look soft yet penetrating, as though he could see beyond her story into the depth of her soul.
Gently, he asked -“Did you express your love to him?”
The young woman lowered her face and in a whisper, replied “No.”

The master’s voice now shifted—firm, steady, carrying the weight of undeniable truth.
“Then you won him in thought and lost him in thought.”

The moment was just a minute in time, but strong enough to pierce her heart with the power of a revelation. She froze, not because of his words alone, but because they unveiled something in her which she had long avoided. The story she had been living was not a reality but a creation of her mind.
In that instant, the truth of her life reflected back at her. She realized how she had clung to imagined outcomes, how she had lived inside a world woven from thoughts, illusions and half-truths. And in doing so, she had missed the raw clarity of the present moment.

Her sorrow was real, but much of her suffering came not from what had happened but from the story her mind had built around it.
And like many who came before her, she too walked away with a revelation- life is not the stories we tell ourselves—it is the naked truth that remains when all illusions dissolve.
And this is the truth of our lives as well.

The Mind as a Storyteller
The human mind is the greatest storyteller ever known. It does not need facts to weave its tales; it requires only a spark of thought. With that spark, it can create dramas, tragedies, comedies, and fantasies—all within seconds. A single glance, a memory or a fear can set the mind spiralling into entire plots that never existed outside of thought.

Sometimes the story is: “I am supreme, all is in my hands, I can control everything.” Other times it whispers: “I am useless, I tried everything, but nothing works for me.” Between these two extremes, the mind constantly oscillates. In both cases, the stories are illusions—they are not the naked truth of our actual lives. And we keep being played around like a football in the match.

Truth v/s Story
Our lives are often far simpler and more raw than we want to admit. The truth is seen in the struggles we face daily: the financial blocks, the arguments at home, the inner heaviness we carry. These are the facts and they demand our awareness. Yet, instead of facing them, the mind throws a colorful chaddar—a blanket of stories—to cover the naked truth.

We create stories to escape.
The story may be a false hope: “Tomorrow everything will change.” Or
self-glorification: “I am destined for greatness, I just have to wait.” Or
even denial: “This is not my karma, someone else is to blame.”

Each of these stories blinds us further. The naked truth remains underneath, waiting for the moment the chaddar is lifted.
That moment of unveiling can be shocking. But it is also liberating. When you see the truth as it is, without the decoration of story, clarity dawns. Pain becomes real but workable. Blocks become visible but removable. Scarcity becomes a condition to heal, not a permanent fate.

How Stories Become Obstacles
Every story we create is like a knot. We weave them so tightly that they begin to look like reality. But knots do not allow flow; they restrict movement. In spiritual language, these knots are karmic imprints—patterns repeated because we never saw them clearly. We believed the story, and so the cycle continued.

Stories such as:
The false hopes we give ourselves.
The forced visualisations we indulge in.
The denials we embrace.
The escapism we justify.
The timetables we make without discipline.
All of these are products of the storyteller within. They do not dissolve karma; they entrench it further.

Beyond the Stories
What happens when we stop telling and listening to our stories? A profound silence arises. In that silence, truth stands unmasked. You see your scarcity, your wounds, your struggles—but you see them clearly. And in that clarity lies the seed of transformation.
Healing does not come from a beautifully crafted story. It comes from direct contact with reality. Just as a doctor cannot treat an imaginary illness, your soul cannot heal from imaginary stories. It heals when you face what truly is: your debts, your relationships, your fears, your strengths, your hidden wounds. These stories are the biggest boulders in reaching the truth and these will keep masking and camouflaging every now and then to prevent you from reaching the core naked truth.

The Call to Awareness
The enlightened man’s teaching to the young woman was not only about love; it was about life itself. How many times have we “won” in thought and “lost” in thought? How many relationships never happened, how many opportunities never grew, how many solutions never came—because we were busy weaving stories instead of acting in truth?

The spiritual journey is the stripping away of stories. The more naked your truth, the more authentic your healing. The less decorated your perception, the more powerful your karma release.

So pause and ask yourself today:
Am I living in the truth of my experience or in the story my mind is spinning?
What blanket am I using to cover the naked truth of my life?
Am I ready to remove it, even if it feels uncomfortable?

Final Reflection
Life is not the story. Life is the truth. Your misery, your fights, your struggles and your scarcity—these are the signals calling you to awareness. Stop running into stories of false hope, self-glorification or denial. Look at your truth, face it and embrace it. That is where real transformation begins.
Because one day, the blanket of illusion will be lifted. The question is—will you be able to see and face the naked truth when it stands before you?

In the end- here is the revelation – your stories are your karma and blockages, they will never allow you to move towards accomplishment and success. Only if you dare to look and act beyond these, can you move towards your goal, else many lives get lost in these stories and they keep creating new ones on and on and on.