Hindu concept
Karmaकर्म
karma — action, and the law that every action bears fruit
In short
Karma means action, and the principle that every action carries a consequence — morally and across lifetimes. Good and harmful deeds shape one's future experience and rebirths. In the Bhagavad Gita, the path of karma yoga teaches acting rightly while releasing attachment to the results.
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What it means
At its simplest, karma means 'action' — but as a principle it is the moral law of cause and effect: intentions and deeds leave traces that ripen into future experience, in this life and across the cycle of rebirth (samsara). It is not fate imposed from outside but the natural fruit of one's own choices.
The Bhagavad Gita reframes karma as a spiritual path. Rather than renouncing action, Krishna teaches karma yoga — to act with full commitment to one's duty while letting go of craving for a particular outcome. Acting without attachment, the tradition holds, is how one works in the world without being bound by it.
A verse on Karma
“karmaṇy-evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana”
Bhagavad Gita 2.47 · Chapter 2, Sankhya YogaYou have a right to your actions alone, never to their fruits. Let not the fruits be your motive, nor attachment draw you to inaction.
Spoken by Krishna to the warrior Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra — the Gita sits within the Mahabharata's Bhishma Parva — as Arjuna, overcome with grief and unwilling to fight his own kin, laid down his bow before the war.
Deities of Karma
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About Karma
What is karma in Hinduism?
Karma is action and the law that every action bears fruit. Good and harmful deeds shape one's future experience and rebirths — not as fate, but as the natural consequence of one's own choices.
What is karma yoga?
Karma yoga is the path of selfless action taught in the Bhagavad Gita: doing one's duty wholeheartedly while releasing attachment to the results. It lets one act in the world without being bound by it.
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