Have you ever wondered why you have good or bad relations with people around you? How do some relations last a lifetime, while some end immediately? While you may instantly connect with someone strongly, you feel like avoiding someone the moment you meet them. It is because of runanubandh.
Runanubandh means any bond formed as a result of karmic debts created by you in the past births or this birth.
For example, when you take a loan from a bank, you have to repay it with interest. Till you repay it completely, you are indebted to the bank. When you fail to pay the debt, the bank will recover it from you in any way. Similarly, you are indebted to several people in your past births. Due to the karmic bonds established, they come into your life in this birth. This is why you feel different emotions such as love, hatred, jealousy, compassion, etc. and have different equations with everyone.
Any relationship lasts in your life only as long as your runa (karmic debt) lasts. You either come to take back or give something to your karmic bonds in this birth. Some of your runas can take a lifetime to repay, whereas some can be paid off quickly.
A runanubandh is formed at four levels - body, mind, intellect and soul. The strongest runanubandh are formed due to physical touch at the body level. We have trillion cells in our body and as per science, each cell can store approximately 8 GB data. When there is physical contact such as a simple handshake or a hug, the cells hold it as a memory of that person, making it a runanubandh. The intention of touch also decides how strong the bond will become. For example, if a daughter-in-law is harassed physically, she will not be able to forget it easily which will result in a stronger karmic bond with her in-laws. Similarly, when a husband lovingly brings a rose to his wife, the physical rose may perish the next day, but his gesture will stay in her memory which will make their bond stronger. The stronger the karmic bond, the more difficult it is to get liberation (moksha) unless you resolve it. The lesser the physical contact, the lesser the chances of increasing karmic bonds. Hence, Sanatan Dharma prescribes the practice of doing Namaste and avoiding physical handshake.
Even when you strongly desire something, you may create a new karmic bond with that desire. If such a desire does not get fulfilled in this life, it gets carried to the next birth. For instance, a person strongly desiring to become a King creates a karmic bond with the position of the King in this life. If his desire is genuine, in his next birth he will reach as close as possible to the King to fulfil this desire. In the absence of a genuine desire, he may get painful experiences through the King or his men, which will teach him a lesson that one should not have excessive desires without having a genuine intention to work towards them.
Sometimes you could be that one member in the family who constantly keeps giving but does not receive anything. In this case, it is possible that you are indebted to your family and have taken birth simply to repay their karmic debt. Even your pets are your karmic bonds from past births. Even the desire to feed a stray dog in your locality too is a result of your runanubandh with that dog.
There are various types of runa a person carries in life, such as Matru-Pitru runa, Sthan (land) runa, Samaj (society) runa, Guru runa, King’s runa, runa of the religion, etc. From the moment you are born, you become indebted to your parents. You are indebted to the land and nature because you utilise natural resources for living. You are born in the country / society where you have a runanubandh. Even a small pencil is manufactured with the hard work of thousands. Simply paying for the pencil doesn’t free you from this debt. Similarly, you are indebted to rishis and Gurus who have worked their whole life to establish and maintain dharma and spread knowledge. You are indebted to them for the goodness and culture in our society today.
Likewise, you have many such runanubandh in this life, the purpose of which can be identified and revealed only by a spiritually realised Jeevit Guru. Only he can help you understand why a certain relationship is causing you trouble.
Each runanubandh comes into your life to teach you a lesson. The purpose of your birth was to learn that lesson, solve your karmic debts, maintain happy relations with everyone and finally get moksha i.e. liberation. Even one pending runa (debt) can cause you next birth.
Without knowing the purpose of your relationships and your role in each relationship, you will never be able to improve them. It is now your choice to solve your runanubadh in this life and live happily or carry them in the next birth and face them all again.
(Antar Yog Foundation https://learn.antaryogfoundation.in)
