Airplane Karma

a short story

Naughty Krishna holding a piece of candy

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alita Dasi’s carry-on was a bit heavy and she almost dropped it, but she managed to push it into the overhead bin.

She sat down on the aisle seat. She had a whole row to herself. “What luck!” She said under her breath.
She leaned back, reached in her shoulder bag and pulled out her Bhagavad-Gita As It is. She was about to open it when a woman and a little girl with a cast on her forearm came up to her.

“Excuse us,” the woman said. “We have to get to our seats.”

They squeezed between Lalita and the seat in front. The little girl stepped on Lalita’s feet and almost fell on her.

“I want the window seat, Mommy,” the little girl said and sat down. The woman sat next to Lalita.

The little girl sneezed. “What’s that smell, Mommy?”

“That’s air freshener,” the woman said. “There’s too much of it.”

Lalita leaned forward and looked at the little girl. “What’s your name, honey?”

“Amelia Brooks.”

“How old are you?”



“Seven.” Amelia put a hand on the woman’s arm. “And this is my mommy, Ashley.”

Ashley turned to Lalita. “Excuse me. Are you a Hare Krishna? I see you’re wearing a sari.”

“Yes. And you?”

“We’re Christian, but sometimes we go to the Hare Krishna Temple in Brooklyn for the Sunday feast.”

“Could I ask you a question?” Ashley continued. “Something’s bothering me about Hare Krishna.”

“Yes. Of course. I’d be happy to explain whatever it is.”

“Excuse me a second,”Ashley said as she opened her purse and took out a tissue. “It’s hot in here.” She crumpled the tissue and patted her forehead here and there with it.

“You see Amelia has a cast on her arm,” she continued.

Amelia lifted her cast-wrapped arm in the air. “I tripped over my dog and fell down the stairs. But I didn’t cry. The doctor said I’m a very brave girl.”

Ashley touched Amelia’s hair. “She really is a brave girl, and that’s why I’m disturbed.”

Lalita raised her eyebrows. “Oh?”

Ashley continued. “We were at the Hare Krishna temple last Sunday, and a young man was talking to us, and he said something…well…”

“What did he say?”

Ashley patted her forehead with the crumpled tissue, then accidentally dropped it. She groaned as she bent to pick it up. Then she threw it in the trash bag on the back of the seat in front of her.

“Why don’t you open the air vent overhead?” Lalita said.

Ashley reached up and turned the little knob on the air vent. “It’s not turned on yet.”

“Well,” Ashley continued, “he said that Amelia’s accident was really her fault because of something she did in an earlier life. But how can you tell a little girl that her accident is her fault? It was an accident.”

Amelia raised her cast-wrapped hand as if she were in school. “What’s an earlier life? Does it mean I did something when I was a baby?”

“No,” Lalita said. “Before that.”

“When I was in my mommy’s belly?”

“No. Before that.”

“I don’t know.”

“You were somewhere else.”

“How did I get in my mommy’s belly?”

“You got old and you died, and Mother Nature put you in your mommy’s belly.”

Ashley put her hand on Amelia’s hair. “You’ll understand when you get older, honey.”

She turned to Lalita. “But this karma thing. It bothers me. It’s something the rich people use in India to exploit the poor. ‘If you’re poor, it’s your bad karma.’ How can you subscribe to that? It’s disgusting.”

Lalita nodded. “Yes, it is disgusting. And it’s the opposite of what karma is all about.”

“What do you mean?”

“As human beings, we are meant to help people overcome their karma, not to exploit them for it.”

“Overcome their karma? How?”

A baby in a row up front started screaming.

Ashley leaned back. “Oh no! Now that’s starting.”

Lalita continued. “Krishna explains it in the Bhagavad-Gita. If you serve God, your actions produce no karma. But if you only serve yourself, you get karma. So you free people from karma by teaching them to serve God.”

Suddenly a voice came over the loudspeaker. “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This is the captain speaking. Our takeoff time has been delayed. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Ashley leaned back. “Oh not again. Seems like this always happens.”

Lalita smiled. “It’s just a little piece of karma.”

“Anyway,” Lalita continued, “I don’t know so much about Christianity, but there are many ways to serve in Krishna temples. We have people cooking for Krishna and artists painting and people putting out magazines and books and a lot of other things.”

Ashley nodded. “Okay, but let me ask you another question. You’re American not Indian, so why do you follow Krishna and not Jesus?”

Lalita cleared her throat. “You don’t question it when an Indian follows Jesus, so why can’t an American follow Krishna?”

“But shouldn’t you follow God as he appeared to your people?”

“Then an Indian could not follow Jesus, and neither could you unless you lived in Israel. When God appears in a certain country, he comes for the benefit of the whole world, not just for that country.”

A stewardess came up to them. “We’re sorry for the delay. Do you need anything?”

Ashley smiled. “No thank you.”

“No thank you,” Lalita said.

The stewardess smiled and walked away.

Ashley turned to Lalita. “She’s quite pretty, isn’t she?”

Lalita nodded. “It’s called good karma. She must have performed pious acts or welfare in her last life. It’s not by chance.”

Ashley patted her forehead with the tissue. “All right. I guess you got a point. But let me ask you, if reincarnation and karma is a fact, why didn’t Jesus teach about it?”

“He may well have.

“How’s that?”

“It’s in the New Testament. Jesus and the disciples came upon a man who had been born blind. The disciples asked whose fault it was, the man’s or his parents’. How could it be the man’s fault unless he had done something in a previous life and was getting karma?”

Ashley shook her head. “Jesus said it was not the man’s fault.”

“Granted, but if the disciples asked that question, they must have accepted reincaration and karma.”

“But the Jews don’t teach reincarnation.”

“A Jewish friend of mine told me that the orthodox Jews do teach it. So Jesus most likely accepted it.”

“Then why isn’t it stated plainly in the New Testament?”

“A lot has been taken out of the New Testament over the centuries. That’s no secret.”

Ashley sighed. “I guess you got a point.” She leaned back. “I’m gonna try to get a little sleep before we take off. Amelia’s already asleep.”

A voice came over the loudspeaker. “This is the captain. We’ll be taking off shortly. The safety demonstration is about to start. Please watch carefully.”

Ashley groaned. “It always happens.”

Lalita nodded. “The cool-air vent should be working now. So you can get a little good karma too.”

Ashley chuckled. “I could use some.”

⁓Umapati Swami March 23, 2026

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© Umapati Swami 2026

Srila Prabhupada

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is the teacher who brought Krishna Consciousness from India to the West and then to the rest of the world. He is the founder of the worldwide Hare Krishna Movement as well as the author and compiler of many works of Vedic knowledge. He left this world in 1977.

Umapati Swami

One of the first American devotees of the Hare Krishna Movement, he became Srila Prabhupada’s disciple in 1966. Since then, he has preached Krishna Consciousness in many countries and is the author of “My Days with Prabhupada,” available from Amazon. Now 89 years old, he maintains this blog to share what he has learned.