You are an embodied soul while you are on earth. This soul has already experienced several incarnations and will live through several more before it is perfect enough to merge with the 'Param-Atma'.

To explain ‘blueprint’ let us use the analogy of an architect’s blueprint. Before your birth this time around, your soul laid out a master plan of a monument you wish to construct. A general framework was prepared which has special supporting pillars to enable the building to be finished in stages, as it would be impossible to complete the structure in one lifetime. Then, the blueprint of how much you intend to build in one lifetime must fit with the master plan, where the supporting pillars or cornerstones cannot be changed.

You are at liberty, and have Free Will, to decide on the décor and the position of the windows or doors, but the basic framework must remain as planned. This is so because the Higher Soul, which knows everything, planned the blueprint in order that this phase is constructed perfectly, so that you could move into the next construction of soul growth.

Due to ‘veils of forgetfulness’ that are placed upon the embodied soul soon after birth, this blueprint, its cornerstones, and its purpose are not remembered by us, and we often wonder why we have to face the problems that beset us.

We must learn to accept whatever troubles, difficulties and tragedies come our way. They are chosen to experience life and are stepping stones to soul growth. You could fight against these adversities with the poor tools of rage or depression, but that will take away the very legs you stand on and the hands you have to embrace with. Diseases or troubles will come. Realise that YOU planned all so that you are not taken away from your monument. Thank it with sincere gratitude that you have been given an opportunity to be … not a body but a soul.

If there is a karmic debt to be paid which had been charted out as a ‘cornerstone’, that debt must be paid, but how you pay it is up to you; With revenge and vengeance or joyously and gratefully.

Let us take an example. You may be involved in a relationship of conflict with another due to a karmic reason. Although you do not remember, nor do you need to remember, the past that resulted in this karma, you do know with all your growing awareness that such a relationship is always one that needs to be karmically resolved. This awareness will make you respond to a difficult situation with a sense of responsibility, love, and letting go. If you choose to ignore such awareness you will react with blame, self-pity, anger, and resentment. The situation that you have to resolve will not go away, but your response/ reaction will result in either of two things. On one hand you redeem your karma, and on the other you hamper and hinder the construction of your magnificent monument.