Karma is a universal law which holds everyone accountable for his or her thoughts, words and actions. It is the law of returns, cause and effect, action and reaction, justice and retribution. By the law of Karma, the universes of God are sustained. As the Great Spiritual Master and Writer, Paul Twitchell said in his book letters to Gail, Vol II, “… all other laws are modeled upon Karma. Our Courts of Justice are based upon this law, the Law of Moses is based upon it, as well as the Code of Hammurabi, the Ten Commandments, the Moral Code, the Protestant Ethical code, the Constitution of United States and the Declaration of Independence, and of course, The Bill of Rights, Rights of man, etc., including all the laws of man, and the major law of the East called the law of Manu.”

The wheels of Karma grind slowly but surely. The law of Karma is no respecter of persons. Power, wealth, fame, long-leg, and oratory do not extrude anyone from the long arms of the Karmic law.

Obsession is one major part of Karma. Obsession binds the individual to its object and makes him or her a slave to it (object of obsession).

Muammar Muhammad Abu Mnyar al-Gaddafi, son of a nomadic family, developed a driving force, obsession, for power at an early age, and he employed every means to acquire it.

To quickly fulfill his dream, he abandoned his law career at the University of Libya, and enrolled in the Military Academy, Benghazi in 1963. From there on, Gaddafi’s entire value system revolved around his inordinate ambition to rule Libya. Thus as a trainee Military Officer, he formed a group with the only objective of overthrowing the Libyan monarchy. And on his graduation from the Military Academy in 1965 and being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the signal corps, Gaddafi raised another group known as the Free Officers Movement. In 1969, the group overthrew the regime of King Idris, and Gaddafi became the chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council.

Intoxicated with power, Gaddafi, 27 years old, promoted himself to Colonel, the highest rank in the revolutionary army and became the Head of State, Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, and Commander-in-Chief of the Libyan Armed Forces.

Strictly speaking, in Gaddafi, power manifested all its attributes. Power intimidates. Power intoxicates. Power asserts. Power controls. Power commands. Power demands. It is wise to beware of the man who rises to power, especially absolute, unlimited power as was lodged in Gaddafi’s hands.

An arrogant, flamboyant, and eccentric leader, Gaddafi ruled his country with iron fist for 42 years and terrorized many nations across the globe with impunity. He was accused of sponsoring bombing, hijacking of ships and air-planes, and other terrorist activities in several parts of the world.

Yes, under the despotic rule of Gaddafi, Libya became one of the most outstanding economies in Africa but it goes without saying that the mercurial leader held his country hostage for decades.

So when the cold hand of karma grabbed the tyrant on October 20, 2011 and took him to the angels of death also known as messengers of death to receive his judgment, Libyans, according to media reports, declared: “We have liberated our beloved country with its cities, villages, hilltops, mountains, deserts, and skies”.

Whether the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) – aided rebel fighters captured him and killed as he was trying to escape from his hideout in his home town of Sirte or pulled him out from a hole and killed, he will be judged according to his desert. And whether by his will, he was buried in the cemetery of Sirte, next to his family and relatives or in a secret desert grave as reported, he will not escape the heavy burden of karma which his greed for power has brought upon him.

It is a spiritual dictum that whoever is greedy for power or material wealth is usually allowed to acquire them, then the possession of these vainglorious things becomes the sword that strikes him down.

With his oil wealth including reserves of 45,426 billion barrels of oil, trusted security personnel, female bodyguards described as the amazons or voluptuous blondes, many children and grand children, as well as controversial deadly weapons banned internationally, the law of karma placed him in a situation where he was trapped and killed like a common criminal.

As he was dominating the lives of his people and even pushing for pan-African government to be headed by him, he was, perhaps oblivious of the workings of the karmaic law. The law actually grinds slowly but surely.

Gaddafi was vicious to those who stood in his way but when the time of reckoning came, his mask of intimidation, control, dehumanisation, and limitless power disappeared leaving him to his fate. Thus, by media reports, he appealed to those who grabbed him: “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot”.

In the final analysis, Gaddafi’s obsession for absolute power conquered him.

So a man should discover his own weakness and conquer it or he will be conquered by it. Five major weakness of a human person are lust, greed, anger, attachment and vanity. But for the space limitation of this piece, it would have been interesting to go into the exposition of these perversions. But suffice it to say that conscious acts of love can propel anyone above these deadly passions of the mind which brought Gaddafi to his knees.

By the law of karma and reincarnation, the late Col. Gaddafi will carry his karmic burden life time after life time until he balances his account with acts of love for God and his fellow creatures.