What is Runanubandha and how is it different from karma?

We often wonder why do we have only these people as my family members and not anyone else from the entire world? Why do relationships start and get established with only certain specific people, out of many, who come into our life? How do we get linked with each other? Is it God deciding it all, or have I selected who I want as my parents and my siblings or as my spouse and my children for this life? What is the secret behind this?

Whoever comes in close relation with us is due to the karmic accounts that we have created with them in our past lives. This is called runanubandh.

The intimate give and take that we see happening with only some living beings in present life is because of our runanubandha with those beings that we’ve built in our past life.

One with whom we have had numerous physical and emotional transactions of give and take in many, many previous births, and depending upon how much we continue to owe to each other at the end of the life, a runanubandha is set up between the two beings for next life. And then, the two come together in the next life and complete the balance transactions. Whoever of the two owes whatever to the other person, returns it back to him / her, settling each transaction one by one. Once the karmic debt between the two is cleared, they happen to part.