The law of compensation is best summed up in the biblical axiom “you reap what you sew”. It is easy to assume that this is the same as the law of karma (discussed in more detail in chapter 21), however, the law of compensation is not the same thing. Karma implies that the negative actions you engage in during your lifetime accumulate and weigh you down, as if they were a heavy load on your back. Karma also implies that these “sins” will have to be “repaid” upon your death or in future lifetimes. The law of divine love, however, mitigates against this definition. God is never punitive! He never punishes any soul. All negativity within the heavenly spheres (even the hells) is aimed exclusively at teaching negatively inclined souls that love is infinitely more gratifying than any form of negativity.
The law of compensation is applied only to the current state of the soul. Say a man has committed evil deeds in the past, but has recognized the error and sincerely atoned for his past sins, then these deeds have little negative bearing on his current spiritual state. The soul’s immediate postmortem resting place in the heavenly spheres depends exclusively upon the state of the soul when it finally crosses into the light. The state of the soul depends upon two factors.
The first factor is the state of the internal character of the soul. Everyone’s internal character changes constantly throughout their lives. Even people who begin their adult lives as irresponsible, self-centered or criminal personalities can truly change as they “evolve” as human beings. Say a drug addicted criminal has gone to prison for crimes against other people, but realizes he must make changes in his attitudes and lifestyle if he wants to live a better life. If this individual gets out of jail and truly reforms, living the remainder of his life always remaining sober, honest and harmless to those around him, then his internal character has truly changed for the better. Over the course of their reformed lives, their spiritual frequencies have risen and they have outgrown the spiritual importance of their past transgressions.
The second factor is the guilt that an individual may carry about his (or her) past behavior. No matter how well a person improves his internal character as he lives his life, his regret for his past actions may manifest as a lingering guilt that affects him til the day he dies. This lingering guilt may present as an obstacle. In its confused after-death state, its guilt may prevent the soul from crossing into the light. However, the friends this soul made during the course of its physical life, having witnessed its improved character, will be there to guide it into the mainstream spiritual realm where the guilt can be discarded like a disease left behind with the physical body.