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. If a person 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 or her 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.
A lot of people enter their adult lives as drug and alcohol addicted criminals. They may have hurt many others during this part of their lives. However, if they have gone through the painful process of kicking their addictions, finding new friends and reforming their lives and attitudes, and especially if they have made amends to those they have wronged, then they have paid their debts, and will be compensated for the more mature and fruitful lives they have lived since their prodigal youths.
In other words, dark deeds committed in your past, if acknowledged and regretted do NOT condemn you to Hell. This is especially true if you have tried to atone for past wrongdoing by engaging in behavior that counters the wrong you have committed. In fact, Past ACTS, evil or good, do not define the spiritual state of the soul. It is only the frame of mind in which they were committed that counts. And the frame of mind can change over time. Even people who once committed very evil acts can truly repent and “evolve”, becoming good souls. After all, the entire point of existing in both the material and spiritual worlds is the evolution of the soul.
Nevertheless, souls who retain their negativity and have committed evil acts which they have never acknowledged or for which they have never atoned will see the painful side of the law of compensation for these are the souls who find themselves sinking into one of the darker Winterlands or possibly one of the hells. Thus the law of compensation is really the enforcer of spiritual harmony because it separates souls on the basis of their spiritual evolution. Because the spirits on any given level are in harmony with each other, their interactions allow them to see their own reflections in their fellow residents.