Karma: The True Meaning
The Teaching
The meaning of karma is in the intention. The intention behind the action is what matters. Those who are motivated only by the desire for the fruits of action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do.
Let right deeds be thy motive, not the fruit which comes from them. And live in the action, labour, make thine acts thy piety, casting all self aside.
Everything that we have ever thought, spoken, done or caused is karma, as is also that which we think, speak or do this very moment. Hindu scriptures divide karma into three kinds: Sanchita — the accumulated karma of all past lives; Prarabdha — the portion of accumulated karma that is unfolding as your present circumstances; and Agami — the karma being created right now through present intention.
Commentary
The word karma comes from the Sanskrit root kru, simply, action or deed. Not reward and punishment. Action. This is the first and most important correction to the popular version: karma is not primarily a system of cosmic justice. It is a description of the relationship between intention, action, and consequence across time.
The Bhagavad Gita's entire teaching on karma yoga, the path of action, is built on the recognition that it is not action itself that binds the soul but action driven by ego and attachment to its fruits. When you act from the place of the separate self, grasping for particular outcomes, the action creates entanglement. When you act from duty, from love, from alignment with dharma, without clinging to results, the action moves through the world differently. It does not leave the same residue.
Three kinds of karma give the teaching its depth. Sanchita is the accumulated weight of all past action across many lives, the full curriculum across the soul's entire journey. Prarabdha is the portion of that accumulated karma that is currently unfolding, the specific circumstances, relationships, and difficulties of this particular life. Agami is the karma being generated right now, in this moment, through the quality of present intention. This is the only one we can directly work with, and it is enough.
The cosmic ledger version gets one thing right: actions have consequences. But it fundamentally misread the structure. Karma is not about punishment and reward balancing out. It is about the shape that intention gives to a life across time. The soul is moving toward something, toward the dissolution of what separates it from the ground, and the curriculum is what that movement requires.