Getting Rid of Bad Karma for usefullness of Master Work

From the Master's standpoint it is a very good, thing for a man to get rid of a piece of bad Karma which is hanging over him in the background, for we have to remember that the Master is hampered by the bad karma of those who wish to serve Him; it prevents His using them as freely as He otherwise could do. Madame Blavatsky, who always spoke very openly about herself, being truthful through and through, said of the Coulomb trouble: “I have not deserved it now, but for my past”. It was a vital thing for her to get rid of this karma, and so the scandalous and shameful way she was treated throughout that affair was the greatest blessing for her; she recognized this when she looked at the matter philosophically, but at times she was disturbed by it on the surface.

All aspirants ought to be helped by that thought, helped to look away from themselves to Him and to think: “These troubles that I am going through make me more useful to Him”.

If you have asked that your karma shall be quickened it is unreasonable to complain when your request is granted. Keep the inspiring idea always in your thoughts: “I shall be of more use to the Master the freer I become”. A gift, once given, must not be taken back. This idea is very common in some of the old Indian books, recurring over and over again in the stories told in them; a gift once given, or a word once spoken, cannot be taken back. If a gift that you have once given should be put back into your hands by circumstances you must give it again; it is not yours, and to keep it would be theft. So, when there is this gift of yourself – the highest and noblest gift of all – you must never take it back. People continually give themselves verbally to the Master, but keep a finger on the gift in order to be able [Pag to pull it back if the Master goes too far – that is really what it comes to. They draw back, if the Master takes them at their word, as sometimes He might do, in order to let them see that they have been deceiving themselves, and had promised more than they were prepared to fulfil.
-Annie Besant, Talks on the Path of Occultism Volume 3