I have not used the word punishment. Karma is a natural law which always works toward balance. The conscious mind we are communicating with has no memory.
I believe our purpose is for the atman to reunite with The Creator and the purpose of karma is to cause our atman to mature and evolve not as punishment.
As an example 2 years ago my apartment was consumed by fire along with most of what I owned. I almost welcomed it because I knew it was bringing my karma back towards being balanced.
My point is that some karma cannot be balanced in one lifetime, we continue rebirth until all karma is resolved. This happens by living increasingly more spiritual lives.
This is what I believe. I am not trying to convert you and I hope you are not doing that to me.
The problem here is that Sikhism has about as much in common with Hinduism, as a journey to London has with a journey to Manchester, yes they involve roads, cars, traffic, but the destinations are completely different. You want to go to Manchester, I want to go to London, yes we can compare driving styles, cars, roads, but it is pointless me ringing you up about jams on the A12 as it is you telling me the M6 is blocked.
I have two puppies, Rory and Bran, well they are nearly two now, but still puppies to me, last year, wife came down to find Brans jaw twisted round Rorys collar, Rory was blue and Brans jaw was covered in blood, after much struggle, Rory flopped on the floor, dead. My wife did not 'almost welcome' this, nor did she accept it as karma, she grabbed Rory and pounded his heart and gave mouth to mouth until he came back, I arrived just as he was sitting up.
That I could see this as a bit of bad karma out of the way is alien to me, its my dog, my baby, what sort of God punishes a woman by making her baby ill, its almost pythonesque, so your baby is ill, but its ok, you got rid of some bad karma, and it definitely had nothing to do with the bottle wine you drank ever day during pregnancy, nor the 20 cigs daily. Nope its definitely something you did a few lifetimes ago!
Life is hard, complicated, its hard doing the right thing, you get to see every day whether you made the right decisions yesterday, you get to see a pattern, the more truth you live by, the better things get, the thought that some celestial being is playing with me, punishing me, burning my flat down, has no place in Sikhism, in my view.
I go to London every week, its closer than Manchester, but I hope you enjoy Manchester