कर्म
From Sanskrit कर्म (karma), a neuter noun from the verbal root कृ (kṛ), “to do, to make, to perform.” Cognate with Vedic and Classical Sanskrit usage where it denotes action, deed, work, or ritual performance. It is related to other Indo-European roots for doing or making and is formally linked to terms such as कृत्य (kṛtya, ‘what ought to be done’) and कर्मन् (karman, an earlier Vedic form). In Vedic literature, the core sense is ‘ritual act’ or ‘sacrificial performance,’ which later generalizes to include any morally significant action and its effects.
At a Glance
- Origin
- Sanskrit (Indo-Aryan, Indo-European language family)
- Semantic Field
- कृ (kṛ, to do/make), कृत (kṛta, done, made), कृत्य (kṛtya, obligation, duty, what should be done), कर्तृ (kartṛ, agent, doer), कर्मन् (karman, action/deed), धर्म (dharma, duty, law, order), फल (phala, fruit, result), पुण्य (puṇya, merit), पाप (pāpa, demerit), संसकार (saṁskāra, formative impression), संस्कार (saṃskāra, ritual formation), संस्कारजन्य प्रवृत्ति (saṃskāra-janya pravṛtti, impulse arising from dispositions), संस्कार-विपाक (saṃskāra-vipāka, maturation of dispositions).
Karma is difficult to translate because it is not merely ‘action’ or ‘fate’ but a technical term encompassing (1) the act, (2) the intention or volition behind it, and (3) its ethically structured consequences across lifetimes, all situated within particular cosmologies. In early Vedic contexts it can mean ritual performance; in later Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions it becomes a complex doctrine linking moral causality, rebirth, and liberation. English renderings such as ‘action,’ ‘deed,’ ‘moral causation,’ or ‘karmic law’ each capture only a slice of the concept and can smuggle in foreign assumptions (e.g., fatalism, retribution, or a lawgiver God) that many original sources reject. Additionally, different schools sharply disagree on whether karma is material, mental, momentary, accumulative, deterministic, or modifiable, so no single translation fits all systems without commentary.
In the earliest Vedic strata, कर्म (karma) refers broadly to ‘doing,’ especially ritual acts such as sacrifice (yajña), offerings, and liturgical procedures prescribed by the priestly tradition. The focus is on technical performance rather than moral quality, and ‘results’ are largely this-worldly or heavenly rewards, secured by correct rites rather than by intention or character. Socially, karma can describe any occupation or function, but in ritual texts it gains a quasi-technical sense as a component of the sacrificial system, where each karma is a procedural step with specific cosmic efficacy. At this stage, the later notions of karmic rebirth, moral causality, and accumulated merit or demerit are only nascent or absent.
Between the late Vedic period and the classical age of Indian philosophy, karma is transformed into a central metaphysical and ethical principle explaining continuity of experience across lifetimes. Upaniṣadic texts first articulate the idea that a person’s deeds shape their postmortem destiny, gradually linking ritual works to rebirth and moral qualities. Śramaṇa movements—most prominently early Buddhism and Jainism—radically extend and systematize the doctrine: all volitional actions (or in Jainism, all activities of soul) leave residues that condition future births, suffering, and constraints on knowledge. Brahmanical traditions, including various forms of Vedānta, Sāṅkhya-Yoga, and Mīmāṃsā, respond by developing elaborate taxonomies of karma (e.g., sañcita, prārabdha, āgāmi) and by reconciling karma with their views on self, liberation, and ritual. By the first millennium CE, karma has become a cornerstone of Indian metaphysics, ethics, and soteriology, shared across rival schools even as they dispute its mechanism, scope, and ultimate surmountability.
In modern religious, philosophical, and popular discourse, ‘karma’ is often generalized into a principle of moral causation: ‘what you do comes back to you.’ Globalized Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and New Age movements have exported the term, but frequently in simplified or psychologized forms that detach it from complex doctrines of rebirth, ritual, and metaphysics. Within contemporary Hindu and Buddhist thought, karma is reinterpreted through lenses of social justice, psychology, and existential ethics—for example, as responsibility for intentional patterns rather than as rigid fatalism. In Western philosophy and cultural theory, karma sometimes functions as a comparative concept for discussing free will, moral luck, responsibility without a lawgiving God, and the ethics of long-range consequences. At the same time, in everyday speech it can be reduced to a quasi-superstitious or ironic notion of ‘cosmic payback,’ obscuring its technical nuances in classical traditions.
1. Introduction
कर्म (karma) is a central technical term in the religions and philosophies of South Asia, designating action in a broad sense and, more specifically, morally charged deeds and their consequences. Across Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and related traditions, karma connects individual conduct with patterns of experience, including suffering, well‑being, and—where accepted—cycles of rebirth (saṁsāra).
While in early Vedic ritual contexts karma largely denotes sacrificial performance, later literature develops it into a doctrine of moral causation. Actions are understood not merely as events but as forces that generate फल (phala), “fruits,” which can ripen immediately or in future lives. Different schools dispute what exactly counts as karma (external behavior, inner intention, or even subtle material particles), how its results are transmitted, and whether its operation is deterministic, probabilistic, or modifiable by knowledge, devotion, or asceticism.
The concept functions at several levels:
- Descriptive/cosmological: explaining why beings differ in circumstance and experience.
- Ethical: grounding responsibility, merit (puṇya), and demerit (pāpa).
- Soteriological: framing paths to liberation (mokṣa, nirvāṇa) often as the cessation or transcendence of karmic bondage.
- Ritual and social: structuring notions of duty (dharma), caste and role obligations, and religious discipline.
Comparatively, karma offers a model of moral order without a single sovereign creator or judge, though many theistic schools integrate it with divine governance. In modern and globalized usage, “karma” frequently appears as a generalized or secularized principle of “what goes around comes around,” sometimes diverging significantly from classical formulations. The following sections trace the term’s linguistic roots, historical developments, doctrinal elaborations, and contemporary reinterpretations across traditions and disciplines.
2. Etymology and Linguistic Origins
2.1 Sanskrit Root and Historical Forms
कर्म (karma) is a neuter noun in Classical Sanskrit derived from the verbal root कृ (kṛ), “to do, make, perform.” Grammatically, it is a primary action noun (kṛt formation) that originally meant “doing” or “deed.” Related forms include कर्मन् (karman), an earlier Vedic variant, and derivatives such as कृत (kṛta, done) and कृत्य (kṛtya, what ought to be done).
In early Vedic texts, karma/karman often appears in ritual contexts where it denotes a prescribed act within a sacrificial sequence. Over time, this basic sense of “act/performance” is extended metaphorically and philosophically to cover morally significant deeds and their causal efficacy.
2.2 Indo-European Context
Philologists generally connect kṛ to a broader Indo‑European family of roots for “doing” or “making,” though precise cognates remain debated. Comparative linguists point to parallels in:
| Language/Family | Example | Approximate Sense |
|---|---|---|
| Vedic/Old Indo‑Aryan | कृ (kṛ) | to do, perform |
| Avestan (Iranian) | ker- / kar- (in compounds) | to do, make (hypothesized link) |
| Greek | krínō (“decide, judge”) – sometimes loosely compared | to separate, decide (more distant) |
Some scholars caution that many proposed cognates are speculative, suggesting that while kṛ fits Indo‑European patterns, direct one‑to‑one matches are uncertain.
2.3 From Ritual Act to Technical Term
Diachronically, the semantic field of karma narrows and intensifies:
| Stage | Typical Meaning of karma | Textual Milieu |
|---|---|---|
| Early Vedic | ritual act, sacrifice step | Saṁhitās, Brāhmaṇas |
| Late Vedic/Upaniṣadic | deed determining post‑mortem state | early Upaniṣads |
| Classical Philosophical | morally efficacious action with trans‑lifetime consequences | Sūtra literature, epics |
By the Upaniṣadic period, karma starts to signify not only the act but also its enduring potency to generate कर्मफल (karmaphala). Later philosophical schools treat karma as a core technical term, sometimes coining new compounds (e.g., संचित कर्म, प्रारब्ध कर्म) to refine doctrinal points.
2.4 Vernacular and Pāli Developments
In Middle Indo‑Aryan languages, the Sanskrit form evolves phonologically. Pāli, the canonical language of Theravāda Buddhism, uses कम्म (kamma) with largely parallel semantic developments, though doctrinally reinterpreted. Modern Indo‑Aryan languages (Hindi कर्म, Bengali কর্ম karma, etc.) preserve the basic form while adding colloquial and secular meanings, shaping the term’s contemporary global diffusion.
3. Semantic Field and Related Terms
3.1 Core Semantic Network
कर्म (karma) sits within a dense cluster of Sanskrit terms linked to action, agency, and consequence. Key elements of this semantic field include:
| Term | Basic Sense | Relation to karma |
|---|---|---|
| कृ (kṛ) | to do, make | verbal root underlying karma |
| कर्तृ (kartṛ) | agent, doer | bearer or performer of karma |
| कृत्य (kṛtya) | what ought to be done | normative dimension of action |
| धर्म (dharma) | law, duty, order | framework that qualifies karma as right/wrong |
| फल (phala) | fruit, result | outcome or maturation of karma |
| कर्मफल (karmaphala) | fruit of action | concrete experiences produced by karma |
These terms allow classical authors to distinguish between the mere occurrence of actions and their ethical, ritual, or cosmological significance.
3.2 Action, Duty, and Order
In many Sanskritic traditions, dharma provides the evaluative context in which karma operates. Karma is not simply “doing” but doing relative to:
- One’s role (varna, āśrama, monastic status)
- Prescribed rituals and prohibitions
- Broader cosmic or social order (ṛta, dharma)
Thus, morally weighty karma is often defined as कृत्य (what should be done) or अकृत्य (what should not be done), with phala—pleasant or unpleasant—seen as corresponding to this alignment or misalignment.
3.3 Karma, Dispositions, and Impressions
Later psychological and soteriological discourse introduces terms such as:
| Term | Meaning | Link to Karma |
|---|---|---|
| संस्कार / संस्कार (saṁskāra) | impression, disposition; also ritual formation | karmic actions are said to leave lasting impressions that condition future behavior and experience |
| संस्कारजन्य प्रवृत्ति (saṁskāra‑janya pravṛtti) | impulse arising from dispositions | describes how stored tendencies lead to fresh karmic acts |
| संस्कार‑विपाक (saṁskāra‑vipāka) | maturation of dispositions | sometimes equated with karmic fruition over time |
Some schools treat these as psychological correlates of karmic processes; others, most notably Jainism, posit a more literal, quasi‑material accumulation of karma.
3.4 Merit, Demerit, and Result
The ethical coloring of karma is expressed through:
- पुण्य (puṇya) – meritorious, auspicious karma yielding pleasant results
- पाप (pāpa) – demeritorious karma yielding unpleasant results
These notions integrate karma into systems of reward, punishment, and spiritual progress without necessarily positing a punishing deity, instead invoking an impersonal moral order structured through dharma, ṛta, or comparable principles.
4. Pre-Philosophical and Vedic Usage
4.1 General Pre‑Philosophical Usage
In early, non‑technical Sanskrit usage, कर्म (karma) signifies “deed, work, function, occupation.” It may describe:
- Any task or professional activity
- The performance of a role or duty
- A generic “doing” without explicit moral or metaphysical weight
At this stage, karma largely lacks the later doctrinal association with rebirth and cumulative moral causality.
4.2 Vedic Ritual Context
In the Vedic Saṁhitās and especially the Brāhmaṇas, karma acquires a quasi‑technical ritual sense. It frequently denotes:
- Specific sacrificial acts (yajña‑karma)
- Components or procedures within complex rites
- The overall execution of ritual “works”
The focus is on correct performance—precision in mantras, offerings, and sequences—rather than on the inner intention of the priest or sacrificer.
“By the sacrifice man ascends to heaven; by the proper performance of the work he gains this world and the next.”
— Paraphrase of Brāhmaṇa themes (e.g., Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa)
4.3 Karma and Ṛta
Vedic ritualism treats karma as efficacious within a cosmos ordered by ऋत (ṛta), a principle of cosmic rightness and regularity. Scholars argue that:
- Ritual karma, correctly executed, upholds or restores ṛta.
- The connection between act and result is seen as quasi‑automatic, grounded in cosmic law rather than divine whim.
- Ethical considerations are secondary; a morally indifferent but technically perfect rite can still yield its intended result.
4.4 Limited Moralization
While hints of moral evaluation appear (e.g., notions of puṇya and pāpa begin to surface), early Vedic texts largely treat karma as:
| Aspect | Emphasis in Vedic Usage |
|---|---|
| External form | Strong (ritual accuracy) |
| Intention | Weak or implicit |
| Moral quality | Secondary, not systematically theorized |
| Post‑mortem fate | Present but focused on heaven through sacrifice, not serial rebirth |
Many historians see this phase as the backdrop against which later Upaniṣadic and Śramaṇa movements will moralize and universalize karma beyond ritual sacrifice.
5. Upaniṣadic Reinterpretations of Karma
5.1 From Ritual Efficacy to Moral Causation
The early Upaniṣads reconfigure karma from largely ritual “work” into morally charged action determining one’s post‑mortem destiny. A frequently cited passage states:
“According as one acts and according as one behaves, so does he become. One becomes good by good action, bad by bad action.”
— Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.5
Here karma is explicitly linked to character and future condition, extending beyond sacrificial rites to encompass all ethically significant deeds.
5.2 Karma and Rebirth
Upaniṣadic authors connect karma with saṁsāra, the cycle of birth and death. For example:
“Those whose conduct here has been good will quickly attain a good birth... but those of evil conduct will quickly attain an evil birth.”
— Chāndogya Upaniṣad 5.10.7 (paraphrased)
Karma thus becomes the explanatory principle for differing births (status, species, circumstances) and fortunes, suggesting a trans‑lifetime continuity that is neither purely random nor solely divinely decreed.
5.3 Karma vs. Knowledge (Jñāna/Vidyā)
A major Upaniṣadic move is to distinguish works (karma) from knowledge (vidyā/jñāna):
- Ritual and meritorious actions can yield higher worlds but remain within saṁsāra.
- Only knowledge of the ultimate reality (Brahman) and identity of self (ātman) with that reality brings final release.
The Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad famously contrasts “lower knowledge,” including ritual lore, with “higher knowledge” that leads beyond karma‑bound existence:
“These works, with their rewards, are unstable... The seers, having found out that what is done by karma is not eternal, seek the Self.”
— Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.10–12 (paraphrased)
5.4 Interiorization of Karma
Upaniṣadic thought increasingly interiorizes action:
- Emphasis shifts from external rites to inner orientation and understanding.
- Desire, intention, and knowledge become as crucial as outer performance.
- Some passages suggest that as long as ignorance persists, even good karma binds, whereas knowledge neutralizes or transcends karmic effects.
These reinterpretations set the stage for later systems—both Brahmanical and Śramaṇa—to treat karma as a comprehensive moral and metaphysical law, integrated with theories of self, rebirth, and liberation.
6. Karma in Classical Hindu Philosophies
Classical Hindu thought elaborates diverse yet interrelated doctrines of karma, often systematizing Upaniṣadic hints.
6.1 Epic and Bhagavad Gītā
The Bhagavad Gītā integrates karma with dharma and devotion:
- All embodied beings must act; inaction is impossible (Gītā 3.5).
- Actions bind when done with attachment to their fruits (phala).
- Niṣkāma karma‑yoga: performing prescribed duty without attachment, offering the results to the divine, is presented as a path to liberation.
“To action alone you have a claim, never to its results.”
— Bhagavad Gītā 2.47
Here karma is simultaneously:
| Aspect | Gītā Emphasis |
|---|---|
| Duty | performance of one’s role (e.g., warrior, householder) |
| Bondage | actions done with egoistic attachment |
| Means to freedom | selfless action as yoga |
6.2 Vedānta (Advaita and Others)
Later Vedānta schools classify karma into types such as sañcita (accumulated), prārabdha (already-fructifying), and āgāmi (future), to explain:
- How past deeds shape current embodiment
- Why some karma seems delayed in its effects
- How liberation can occur while a body, supported by prārabdha, still exists
Advaita Vedānta (Śaṅkara) maintains that:
- Karma operates within empirical reality (vyavahāra).
- Saving knowledge (jñāna) destroys sañcita and prevents new āgāmi; prārabdha continues until the body’s end.
- Ultimately, from the standpoint of non‑dual Brahman, karma and its fruits are sublated.
Other Vedāntic traditions (e.g., Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita) similarly accept karma but give greater role to divine grace in altering karmic destiny.
6.3 Sāṅkhya and Yoga
Sāṅkhya‑Yoga systems treat karma as impressions (saṁskāras) stored in the subtle body, propelling future experiences and rebirths. Pātañjala Yoga emphasizes:
- Karmic seeds (bīja) rooted in kleśas (afflictions such as ignorance and egoism).
- Ascetic practice and meditative insight burning these seeds, preventing future sprouting.
6.4 Mīmāṃsā and Ritual Karma
Pūrva‑Mīmāṃsā focuses on Vedic ritual:
- Karma is primarily Vedic sacrifice and prescribed action.
- The efficacy of karma is intrinsic and apūrva (a subtle, unseen potency) links act to result.
- Many Mīmāṃsakas downplay or reject a creator God, viewing karma as sufficient to explain reward and punishment.
Collectively, classical Hindu philosophies agree on karma’s centrality but diverge on its mechanism, relation to divine agency, and the precise route by which its binding force is neutralized or transcended.
7. Buddhist Conceptions of Kamma
7.1 Kamma as Volition (Cetanā)
In early Buddhism, particularly the Pāli Nikāyas, kamma (Skt. karma) is defined primarily as intention:
“It is volition, bhikkhus, that I call kamma; having willed, one acts through body, speech, or mind.”
— Aṅguttara Nikāya 6.63
This definition narrows the field of morally significant action to deliberate, intentional processes, distinguishing mere physical events from ethically consequential kamma.
7.2 Kamma, Dependent Origination, and Rebirth
Kamma is embedded in the doctrine of dependent origination (paṭicca‑samuppāda):
- Intentional acts condition saṅkhārā (formations), which in turn shape consciousness and future existence.
- Pleasant and painful experiences in this and future lives are explained as the maturation of past kamma.
- There is no enduring self (anattā) that “owns” kamma; rather, a causal continuum of mental and physical events persists.
7.3 Ethical and Soteriological Dimensions
Buddhist sources emphasize:
- Kamma as the basis for moral responsibility and gradations of rebirth (heavens, human realm, lower realms).
- The importance of right intention in the noble eightfold path.
- The possibility of transforming karmic tendencies through ethical conduct, meditation, and insight.
Liberation (nirvāṇa) is described as the cessation of greed, hatred, and delusion, which ends the production of new, rebirth‑generating kamma.
7.4 Theravāda Abhidhamma and Later Developments
Theravāda Abhidhamma texts analyze kamma in detail:
| Category | Example | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Wholesome (kusala) | generosity, compassion | leads to favorable rebirth, clarity |
| Unwholesome (akusala) | cruelty, greed | leads to suffering and lower realms |
| Weighty (garuka) | heinous acts, profound meditative states | can override other kamma at death |
Later Mahāyāna traditions retain the basic notion of intentional kamma but link it to additional ideas such as bodhisattva vows, store consciousness (ālaya‑vijñāna), and universal compassion, diversifying interpretations while preserving the core emphasis on volition and mental transformation.
8. Jain Realist Theories of Karmic Matter
8.1 Karma as Subtle Matter
In Jainism, karma is not merely a mental or moral abstraction but a subtle, quasi‑material substance that adheres to the jīva (soul). According to canonical works like Umāsvāti’s Tattvārtha Sūtra:
- Every activity of body, speech, and mind draws in fine karmic particles.
- These particles bind to the soul in accordance with the intensity of passions (anger, pride, deceit, greed).
This realist view sharply contrasts with more psychologized conceptions in other traditions.
8.2 Types and Functions of Karmic Matter
Jain texts classify karma into multiple categories, often summarized as:
| Main Category | Function (Simplified) |
|---|---|
| Knowledge‑obscuring (jñānāvaraṇīya) | limits the soul’s ability to know |
| Perception‑obscuring (darśanāvaraṇīya) | obstructs perception |
| Deluding (mohanīya) | causes attachment, aversion, wrong belief |
| Energy‑obstructing (antarāya) | hinders the exercise of capacities |
| Body‑making (nāma) | determines physical form and features |
| Lifespan‑determining (āyuḥ) | fixes duration of life |
| Status‑determining (gotra) | sets social/spiritual status |
| Feeling‑producing (vedanīya) | generates pleasure and pain |
These karmas are said to “cover” or distort the soul’s innate omniscience, bliss, and energy.
8.3 Influx, Bondage, and Shedding
Jain doctrine distinguishes several processes:
- Āsrava (influx): entry of karmic particles due to activity and passions.
- Bandha (bondage): firm binding of karma to the soul, determined by intensity and duration.
- Saṃvara (stoppage): preventing new karma through ethical restraint and vigilance.
- Nirjarā (shedding): elimination of accumulated karma via austerities and meditation.
“By avoiding sin and by austerity, the soul is freed from karma and attains the highest.”
— Paraphrase from Tattvārtha Sūtra 9–10
8.4 Asceticism and Liberation
Jainism’s rigorous ascetic path aims at:
- Minimizing activities that attract new karmic matter.
- Burning off old karma through fasting, bodily discipline, and contemplative practices.
When all karmic matter is exhausted, the soul is said to rise to the siddha‑śilā (abode of liberated beings), existing eternally in a state of omniscience and bliss, free from further karmic interaction.
9. Ritual Action, Moral Action, and Intention
9.1 From External Rite to Moral Deed
Indian traditions variously distinguish between:
- Ritual action (yajña, iṣṭi, homa, etc.): prescribed performances with codified procedures.
- Moral action: behavior toward other beings, often evaluated by dharma, compassion, non‑harm, or social norms.
Early Vedic literature prioritizes ritual correctness, whereas later Upaniṣadic, Buddhist, and Jain texts increasingly treat everyday moral actions as karmically pivotal.
9.2 Intention (Cetanā) and Inner States
Several schools foreground intention:
- Early Buddhism defines kamma as volition (cetanā), making inner motivation decisive.
- Many Hindu and Jain authors acknowledge that the mental attitude (e.g., desire, anger, detachment) affects the karmic weight of an act.
The Bhagavad Gītā, for instance, presents non‑attached action—doing one’s duty without craving results—as less binding than the same act done for egoistic gain.
9.3 Divergent Evaluations of Ritual
Traditions differ on the karmic status of ritual acts:
| Tradition | View of Ritual Karma |
|---|---|
| Pūrva‑Mīmāṃsā | Ritual is the paradigmatic karma; its correct performance yields specific fruits, largely independent of moral psychology. |
| Upaniṣads | Rituals have limited, non‑ultimate benefits; emphasis shifts to knowledge and ethical conduct. |
| Bhagavad Gītā | Ritual/actions integrated into karma‑yoga when done as offerings. |
| Buddhism | Vedic sacrifice often critiqued; generosity, morality, and meditation valued over formal rites. |
| Jainism | Ritual observances matter, but intention and avoidance of harm take precedence. |
Critics of purely ritualistic approaches argue that mechanically executed rites without ethical refinement can perpetuate bondage by generating further karmic results.
9.4 Non‑Violence and Ethical Restraint
In both Buddhism and Jainism, and in many Hindu ethical discussions, ahiṃsā (non‑violence) becomes a central criterion for morally wholesome karma. Even when rituals are retained, their form is sometimes adapted to minimize harm (e.g., rejection of animal sacrifice by certain movements), illustrating how moral concerns reshape understandings of what actions are karmically desirable.
10. Karma, Rebirth, and Liberation
10.1 Karma as Link Between Lives
In most classical Indian systems, karma and rebirth (saṁsāra) are tightly connected:
- A being’s present life circumstances—body, social status, experiences—are seen as results (karmaphala) of past actions.
- Death does not erase karmic traces; they continue to condition the form and quality of future births.
This framework addresses questions of apparent moral inequality, misfortune, and fortune without immediate cause in a single lifetime.
10.2 Divergent Models of Rebirth
Different traditions articulate rebirth in distinct ways:
| Tradition | Bearer of Karma | Rebirth Model |
|---|---|---|
| Many Hindu schools | enduring self (ātman, jīva) | transmigrates carrying karmic residues |
| Buddhism | causal stream of aggregates, no permanent self | continuity without identity; kamma conditions new aggregates |
| Jainism | eternal individual soul (jīva) bound by karmic matter | soul rises or sinks according to karmic load |
Despite divergent metaphysics of self, karma functions as a trans‑lifetime causal principle in all three.
10.3 Karma as Bondage
Karma is frequently described as that which binds to saṁsāra:
- In Vedānta and Sāṅkhya‑Yoga, karmic merits and demerits tie the subtle body to cycles of birth and death.
- Buddhist texts speak of craving‑driven kamma as the “fuel” that keeps rebirth going.
- Jainism depicts karmic matter as literal bondage that weighs down the soul.
Meritorious karma may improve future conditions but still sustains cyclic existence; thus, even “good” karma is ultimately an obstacle to final release.
10.4 Strategies for Ending Karmic Rebirth
Paths to liberation typically involve stopping new karma and dealing with accumulated karma:
- Hindu traditions: knowledge of the self/Brahman, non‑attached action, and devotion are variously said to exhaust or transcend karmic stores.
- Buddhism: insight into impermanence, suffering, and non‑self eradicates ignorance and craving, halting the production of new rebirth‑producing kamma.
- Jainism: rigorous asceticism, right faith, knowledge, and conduct both prevent new karmic influx and burn off existing karmic matter.
Liberation (mokṣa, nirvāṇa, kevala‑jñāna) is commonly depicted as a state beyond karmic causality, where no further birth arises because the causal conditions for it have been extinguished or completely exhausted.
11. Taxonomies of Karma in Indian Thought
11.1 Hindu Classifications
Classical Hindu texts develop several influential taxonomies.
By temporal status (especially in Vedānta):
| Term | Meaning | Role |
|---|---|---|
| संचित कर्म (sañcita) | accumulated karma from past lives | latent storehouse of karmic seeds |
| प्रारब्ध कर्म (prārabdha) | portion of sañcita now fructifying | shapes present body and key life circumstances |
| आगामि कर्म (āgāmi) | karma generated by current actions | will be added to sañcita unless neutralized |
By moral quality and outcome:
- Puṇya (meritorious karma) vs. pāpa (demeritorious), each associated with different realms of rebirth and experiences.
Some schools further distinguish niṣkāma (desireless) from sākāma (desire‑driven) karma, emphasizing their differing binding force.
11.2 Buddhist Distinctions
Buddhist scholastic traditions, especially Theravāda Abhidhamma, classify kamma along several axes:
| Axis | Examples |
|---|---|
| Ethical quality | wholesome (kusala), unwholesome (akusala), indeterminate (avyākata) |
| Function | productive (janaka), supportive (upatthambhaka), obstructive (upapīḷaka), destructive (upaghātaka) |
| Time of fruition | immediately effective, next‑birth effective, indefinitely delayed |
Mahāyāna schools introduce related ideas such as:
- Karmic seeds (bīja) stored in ālaya‑vijñāna (store consciousness).
- Differentiation between personal and collective karma.
11.3 Jain Classificatory Schemes
Jainism offers one of the most elaborate taxonomies, distinguishing:
- Ghātiyā karmas (destructive, obscuring the soul’s attributes): knowledge‑obscuring, perception‑obscuring, deluding, energy‑obstructing.
- Aghātiyā karmas (non‑destructive, determining worldly existence): body‑making, lifespan‑determining, status‑determining, feeling‑producing.
Additional distinctions track:
- Duration of karmic bondage.
- Intensity of fruition.
- Mode of experience (e.g., physical vs. mental pain).
11.4 Functions of Taxonomies
These detailed classifications serve multiple functions:
- Explaining diversity of experiences and capacities among beings.
- Providing a fine‑grained map for spiritual practice (e.g., targeting specific karmas for removal).
- Reconciling observed moral complexity with doctrinal commitments to karmic order.
Scholars note that such taxonomies also reflect each school’s broader metaphysical and psychological commitments, embedding karma within their overall philosophical systems.
12. Comparative Conceptual Analysis
12.1 Points of Convergence
Across major Indian traditions, karma shares several core features:
| Shared Feature | Typical Expression |
|---|---|
| Causality | actions have consequences structured beyond mere chance |
| Ethical valence | intentions and deeds are evaluated as wholesome/unwholesome, meritorious/demeritorious |
| Trans‑lifetime reach | effects may manifest in future lives, not only immediately |
| Role in soteriology | understanding and transforming karma is central to liberation |
These commonalities allow scholars to speak of a “karmic worldview,” despite notable internal diversity.
12.2 Divergent Ontologies
Key differences emerge in how karma is ontologically understood:
| Tradition | Ontological Status of Karma |
|---|---|
| Many Hindu schools | subtle causal potency or impression attached to a continuing self; sometimes linked with divine oversight |
| Buddhism | patterns of intentional mental events, with no permanent self; purely impersonal causality |
| Jainism | fine material substance actually binding to an eternal soul |
These distinctions shape debates about agency, identity, and the feasibility of altering karmic trajectories.
12.3 Determinism, Freedom, and Moral Responsibility
Traditions also vary in their implicit or explicit stance on determinism:
- Some Mīmāṃsā and early Brahmanical views appear highly law‑like and deterministic, assigning great explanatory power to past karma.
- Buddhist sources often emphasize present intention’s capacity to modify karmic outcomes, while still recognizing constraints from past kamma.
- Jainism acknowledges both the weight of accumulated karmic matter and the soul’s capacity, through ascetic effort, to arrest and shed it.
This raises comparative questions about free will, moral luck, and the scope of ethical reform within a karmically structured universe.
12.4 Relation to Divine Agency
Approaches to divine involvement differ:
- Non‑theistic: Buddhism and many Jain schools treat karma as entirely impersonal.
- Theistic: Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva traditions see God as overseeing karmic distribution or offering grace to mitigate it.
- Ritual‑centric: Some Mīmāṃsā thinkers minimize or reject a creator deity, emphasizing the intrinsic efficacy of Vedic karma.
Comparative analysis thus highlights karma as a flexible concept that can support both theistic and non‑theistic religious frameworks, as well as diverse theories of selfhood and causality.
13. Translation Challenges and Misconceptions
13.1 Limits of Single-Word Equivalents
Translating karma into English (or other modern languages) poses difficulties because:
- “Action” captures the basic sense but ignores trans‑lifetime moral causation.
- “Fate” or “destiny” overemphasizes passivity and determinism, downplaying agency and intention.
- “Moral law” suggests a legislator or juridical framework not always present in original contexts.
Scholars often recommend leaving karma untranslated or using explanatory phrases such as “morally efficacious action and its consequences.”
13.2 Variation Across Traditions
A further challenge is that “karma” is not uniform:
| Tradition | Narrow Sense | Broader Sense |
|---|---|---|
| Buddhism | intentional volition (cetanā) | the whole causal process shaped by intention |
| Jainism | karmic matter | the full system of bondage and liberation |
| Hindu schools | ritual and moral action | entire complex of duties, impressions, and fruits |
Using one English equivalent for all risks importing features from one tradition into another (e.g., material karma into Buddhism, or purely mental karma into Jainism).
13.3 Common Misconceptions
Several widespread misunderstandings can be noted:
- Karma as simplistic “cosmic reward and punishment”: Classical sources often portray a nuanced, multi‑cause system rather than a strict tit‑for‑tat mechanism.
- Karma as fatalism: Most traditions insist that present choices matter and can alter karmic trajectories, even if within constraints.
- Karma as purely individual: Some texts (especially Mahāyāna Buddhist and certain Hindu sources) allow for collective or relational karma; others emphasize individual responsibility.
- Karma as instant payback: Many doctrines stress delayed fruition; effects can manifest across lifetimes.
13.4 Strategies for Translation
Translators and interpreters adopt various strategies:
- Loanword with gloss: retaining karma and explaining its meaning in notes.
- Context‑dependent rendering: e.g., translating as “ritual work” in Vedic texts, “intention” in early Buddhist sources, “karmic matter” in Jain works.
- Descriptive phrases: such as “karmic causality,” “karmic result,” or “karmic imprint.”
Each approach balances readability against precision, and the choice often reflects the translator’s theoretical stance on the nature of karma.
14. Modern Reinterpretations and Secular Uses
14.1 Modern Religious Reform and Interpretation
From the 19th century onward, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain reformers have reinterpreted karma in light of modern science, ethics, and global discourse:
- Some Hindu thinkers (e.g., Vivekananda, Radhakrishnan) present karma as a rational law of moral causation analogous to physical laws.
- Buddhist modernists often emphasize psychological readings: karmic results are framed as patterns of mental habit and experience rather than as metaphysical rebirth.
- Jain reformers highlight ethical non‑violence and environmental responsibility in karmic terms, sometimes downplaying technical materialist doctrines.
14.2 Karma and Psychology
Contemporary interpreters frequently equate karmic processes with:
- Formation of habits and character traits.
- Unconscious conditioning and cognitive biases.
- Long‑term consequences of repeated thought and behavior patterns.
This psychologization shifts focus from literal rebirth to lifespan development, though many traditionalists retain belief in multiple lives alongside such readings.
14.3 Secular and Popular Uses
In everyday global English and other languages, “karma” often appears in highly simplified or metaphorical senses:
| Usage Type | Example | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Colloquial “what goes around comes around” | “That’s karma catching up with him.” | immediate moral payback, often ironic |
| New Age and self‑help | “Clear your karma through positive thinking.” | eclectic mixing with Western esotericism and therapy |
| Pop culture branding | “Karma points,” “bad karma” | playful, detached from doctrinal background |
These uses typically bracket doctrines such as rebirth, ritual, or complex taxonomies, instead treating karma as a vague cosmic fairness principle or personal growth metaphor.
14.4 Academic and Philosophical Appropriations
In comparative philosophy and religious studies, scholars employ karma as:
- A model for responsibility without a creator deity, illuminating debates on theodicy and moral luck.
- A framework for long‑range ethics, including environmental and intergenerational responsibility.
- A comparative lens for discussing free will, determinism, and the self.
Such engagements may be sympathetic or critical, but they extend karma beyond traditional doctrinal boundaries into broader theoretical conversations.
15. Karma, Ethics, and Moral Responsibility
15.1 Grounding Moral Order
Karma functions as an ethical principle by linking intentional action with experiential consequences. This linkage is often portrayed as:
- Impersonal and law‑like, even when integrated with theism.
- Sensitive to motive, not merely outward behavior.
- Extending beyond a single lifespan, thereby broadening the horizon of accountability.
In this way, karma supplies a rationale for cultivating virtues and avoiding harmful conduct.
15.2 Responsibility and Agency
Most karmic theories assume meaningful moral agency:
- Agents are seen as capable of choosing actions, even within karmically conditioned circumstances.
- Present choices can mitigate or intensify the effects of past karma.
- Ignorance, craving, and passion are acknowledged as powerful but not insurmountable influences.
Some critics, both traditional and modern, question whether extensive karmic conditioning leaves sufficient room for genuine freedom, prompting internal debates about the balance between determinism and agency.
15.3 Merit, Demerit, and Justice
Karma is often associated with a notion of cosmic justice:
| Ethical Feature | Karmic Framing |
|---|---|
| Reward | pleasant experiences, favorable rebirths from meritorious actions |
| Punishment | suffering or unfavorable rebirths from harmful actions |
| Impartiality | the law of karma applies regardless of social status or external observance |
Supporters argue that this framework explains apparent inequities while preserving moral meaning. Critics contend that it can be used to rationalize social inequalities (e.g., caste status, disability) as deserved, potentially discouraging compassion or social reform, though many contemporary interpreters explicitly reject such applications.
15.4 Compassion, Solidarity, and Social Ethics
Some modern readings emphasize that:
- Understanding others as bearers of complex karmic histories can foster empathy, patience, and non‑judgment.
- Karma can support ethics of non‑violence, charity, and service, since harming others is ultimately harming oneself karmically.
- Alternatively, overemphasis on personal karma may divert attention from structural injustices, prompting debates on how karmic ethics intersect with modern ideas of human rights and social responsibility.
Thus, karma serves as both a resource and a point of contention in contemporary moral thought.
16. Karma in Cross-Cultural Philosophy and Theology
16.1 Comparisons with Western Concepts
Scholars and theologians frequently compare karma with Western notions such as:
| Western Concept | Point of Comparison with Karma |
|---|---|
| Providence | both articulate a morally ordered universe, though karma is often impersonal. |
| Divine judgment | akin to karmic retribution, but karma need not involve a judging deity. |
| Moral luck | both address outcomes not fully under present control but linked to prior conditions. |
| Character and habit | resonate with karmic emphasis on repeated actions shaping dispositions. |
Such comparisons highlight structural similarities while also exposing deep doctrinal differences, particularly regarding the existence of a creator God and a single lifetime framework.
16.2 Interreligious Theological Engagements
In dialogues between Indic and Abrahamic traditions:
- Some Christian and Muslim thinkers view karma as incompatible with doctrines of grace, forgiveness, and resurrection in a single life.
- Others explore analogies between karma and notions of sowing and reaping, or divine justice tempered by mercy.
- Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain participants often present karma as providing an account of suffering that does not rely on inherited guilt or arbitrary divine will.
These engagements sometimes foster hybrid models, such as theistic understandings of karma overseen or transformed by divine grace.
16.3 Secular Philosophy and Ethics
In secular philosophy:
- Karma is invoked in debates on responsibility without retribution: consequences flow from actions without requiring punitive intent.
- Environmental and intergenerational ethics adopt karmic language to stress that present consumption patterns shape future well‑being.
- Philosophers of mind and metaphysics examine karmic continuity as an alternative to substance‑based personal identity, especially in dialogue with Buddhist thought.
16.4 Methodological Reflections
Cross‑cultural work raises methodological issues:
- Risk of conceptual anachronism, e.g., reading karma as if it were identical to Western free‑will debates.
- Challenges in separating descriptive accounts of traditional beliefs from prescriptive moral theories.
- Questions about whether karma can be detached from its religious and soteriological contexts and still remain the “same” concept.
Such reflections shape ongoing comparative research and philosophical appropriation of karmic ideas.
17. Legacy and Historical Significance
17.1 Shared Civilizational Framework
Over millennia, doctrines of karma have provided a shared conceptual framework across diverse South Asian traditions, contributing to a “karmic cosmology” that:
- Explains suffering, inequality, and fortune through trans‑lifetime causation.
- Links ethics, ritual, and metaphysics into a single narrative.
- Shapes literary, artistic, and legal imaginations, from epics and dramas to temple iconography and customary law.
Even rival schools often debate within this common horizon, disagreeing more over the mechanics and metaphysics of karma than over its centrality.
17.2 Influence on Social and Political Thought
Karmic ideas have historically influenced:
- Conceptions of social order and hierarchy, including justifications and critiques of caste.
- Attitudes toward charity, kingship, and justice, as rulers and donors sought merit through public works and religious patronage.
- Responses to calamity and illness, often interpreted through karmic causality.
Modern reformers and activists selectively reinterpret or challenge karmic explanations in light of egalitarian and human rights discourses, illustrating karma’s contested role in contemporary South Asian societies.
17.3 Global Dissemination
From the 19th century onward, karma entered global vocabulary through:
- Orientalist scholarship and translations of Sanskrit and Pāli texts.
- Theosophy, spiritualist movements, and later New Age currents.
- Migration, diaspora communities, and popular culture (literature, film, music).
As a result, “karma” now circulates in highly diverse semantic registers, from rigorous doctrinal use in monastic settings to casual idioms in everyday speech.
17.4 Ongoing Intellectual and Practical Relevance
Karma continues to be:
- A subject of scholarly research in religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, and psychology.
- A living doctrine guiding ethical choices, ritual practices, and spiritual disciplines for millions.
- A comparative tool for rethinking questions of justice, responsibility, and the meaning of suffering across cultures.
Its historical trajectory—from Vedic ritual act to complex moral cosmology to global cultural motif—demonstrates the capacity of a single concept to evolve, diversify, and remain influential across radically different contexts and epochs.
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@online{philopedia_karma,
title = {karma},
author = {Philopedia},
year = {2025},
url = {https://philopedia.com/terms/karma/},
urldate = {December 10, 2025}
}Study Guide
कर्म (karma)
In this entry, karma is the Sanskrit term for action or deed, developed into a technical doctrine of morally significant actions and their consequences (karmaphala) across lifetimes, operating within specific cosmologies of rebirth and liberation.
धर्म (dharma)
Law, duty, moral order, or intrinsic nature; the normative framework that specifies which actions are appropriate, obligatory, or prohibited for different beings and roles.
फल / कर्मफल (phala / karmaphala)
Phala means ‘fruit’, and karmaphala is the fruit of action: the concrete experiences, circumstances, or rebirths that arise as results of past karma.
संचित, प्रारब्ध, आगामि कर्म (sañcita, prārabdha, āgāmi karma)
A Vedāntic threefold classification of karma: sañcita is the accumulated, not-yet-fructified store; prārabdha is the portion now bearing fruit in the present life; āgāmi is karma being generated by current actions, which will join the store unless neutralized.
कम्म (kamma) and cetanā (volition) in Buddhism
In early Buddhism, kamma (Pāli for karma) is defined primarily as intentional volition (cetanā) expressed through body, speech, or mind, which conditions future experience and rebirth without requiring a permanent self.
Jain karmic matter and jīva
In Jainism, karma is a subtle, quasi-material substance that physically adheres to the jīva (individual soul), obscuring its innate knowledge, energy, and bliss; liberation requires stopping new karmic influx and shedding accumulated karmic matter.
संसार (saṁsāra) and liberation (mokṣa / nirvāṇa / kevala-jñāna)
Saṁsāra is the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth sustained by karma; liberation terms (mokṣa/mukti in Hinduism, nirvāṇa in Buddhism, kevala-jñāna in Jainism) refer to states beyond karmic causality and rebirth.
ऋत (ṛta) and impersonal moral order
Ṛta is the Vedic notion of cosmic order upheld by correctly performed rituals; later, similar ideas underlie the view that karmic causality is impersonal and law-like rather than purely dependent on a deity’s will.
How does the meaning of karma shift from early Vedic ritual texts to the Upaniṣads, and what factors might explain this shift?
In what ways do Buddhist and Jain conceptions of karma differ most sharply, and how do these differences reflect their contrasting views of self and liberation?
Why does the Bhagavad Gītā propose niṣkāma karma-yoga (selfless action without attachment to results) as a way to neutralize karma’s binding force?
How do different taxonomies of karma (Vedāntic sañcita/prārabdha/āgāmi, Buddhist kamma classifications, Jain karmic categories) help each tradition address questions of justice and moral complexity?
To what extent can karma be translated into secular psychological terms (habits, conditioning, character formation) without losing its religious and metaphysical content?
Does belief in karma necessarily undermine free will, or can it coexist with robust notions of moral agency?
How does the impersonal, law-like character of karma compare with the idea of divine judgment in Abrahamic traditions?