Life is given to us for two purposes, my Guru says. One is to accept our bhog (both good and bad), and secondly to move on towards our true higher purpose to move ahead on our spiritual path so that we can understand our true nature and become one with God. Ill suggest you get details on .
When we go through good times, our good karma is being spent and likewise with our bad times.
Hardships or sufferings can be interpreted as situations which are strongly unfavourable and, hence, unacceptable and intolerable. In such situations, we usually blame God or others. But we forget that these times come as a result of our karma.
These sufferings are not meant to make us suffer. They come to teach us something. Once, we understand what they are trying to teach us, its easier to accept the situation and move on.
Acceptance helps us a lot to move on. Till we accept, we cannot think clearly so we cant find solutions.
Many people think doing good karma will negate our bad karma. However, from what I have understood till now, they are two separate departments (for want of a better word, I used the word department). We find many criminals living good lives. How would that be possible unless they have past good karma to create such situations? They would have to suffer for their bad karma as well. Law of karma can never fail and it is never unjust.
Doing good karma is important so that we can get its fruits in this and the future lifetimes. These also make our bad times more tolerable.
To answer your question, we cannot reduce or remove our bad karma. Bhog has to be borne. However, if we keep learning from situations, accept the situations so that we can move on and if we keep doing good karma, it is easier to tolerate hardships.
Having said that, there are two things which can actually reduce our bad karma absolute faith in and complete surrender unto God or Gurus feet. Most people would think its impossible. Its very difficult but, definitely, not impossible.
When we have absolute faith in God or Guru, its easier to surrender ourselves to them. God comes in the form of Guru. So, ultimately, They are one and the same.
Absolute faith means not an iota of doubt. No matter what happens, if our faith is unshakeable, God and Guru will actually make our sufferings less by converting big problems coming our way into smaller ones.
Only a practicing Yogi (not to be confused with merely yogic asanas) can become a Sadguru and only such a Guru can lessen the burdens of our bad karma.
If you are familiar with the vedic astrological term saadesaati, you will find many people suffer a lot during the phase and some people dont even realise they are going through the phase. This is because they learn their lifes lessons sooner and they are being protected by their faith in God/Guru.
Please be very careful in choosing your Guru. If he/she is a fake one, you will end up losing more than what you hoped to gain.
My Gurudev used to say that just as Guru has the right to take the test of a shishya, a shishya also has the right to test his /her Guru. Only when you are absolutely sure that he/ she is your Guru, faith and surrender would gradually come. A Sadguru is never greedy and will not ask for money and will definitely not ask female shishyas to touch him. Please beware of such so-called Gurus.