Karma – The Law of Cause & Effect 

Karma is the great law of “cause and effect”, of “action and reaction”, which controls the destiny of all living entities.

karma, kárma or kárman (Sanskrit: कर्म, “act, action, performance”) — is a noun-form coming from the root kri meaning “to do,” “to make.” Literally karma means “doing,” “making,” action. Karma is pronounced as “karmuh,” the “uh” being subtle. Karma can best be translated into English by the word consequence. It corresponds to the “action” or “deed” which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect (i.e., the cycle called saṃsāra). It applies to all levels of action, including thought, word, feeling and deed, and the effects of it.

This great law functions on the principle, that any action performed produces an equal and opposite reaction, which directly influences our very existence.

Karma, like time and gravity, is a universal principle and every one is effected by its influence. 

The law of karma states, that every action performed in life creates another reaction which in turn produces a new counter action. 

Sow an act, and you will reap a habit. Sow a habit, and you will reap a destiny, because habits build character. This is the sequence: an act, a habit, a character, and a destiny. You are the creator of yourself. What you make yourself to be now, you will be in the future. What you are now, is precisely what you have made yourself to be in the past. What you sow, you shall reap.

We reap what we sow, and where we have sown; and if we have sown seeds of good and evil in this life and on this earth, it is only in the same or another life on this earth that we can reap what we have sown. So it is with man. He sows seeds of thought and action, and he reaps that crop where he sowed them, which is in himself and in this physical world.

Our universe is ruled by law and order; and this word karma expresses that fact of universal harmony and consistency manifesting as what we call law and order.