Karma | FidesDB

What it is: Karma refers to the principle according to which actions, intentions, and behaviors generate consequences that affect present and future existence.

How the tradition understands it: In many Hindu schools, karma helps explain suffering, merit, circumstances of birth, and moral responsibility. It is not usually thought of only as fatalism, but as a dynamic of action and result.

Textual basis and context: The concept matured in a post-Vedic environment and is strongly tied to samsara and moksha. The Bhagavad Gita and several Upanishads are key sources for its interpretation.

Debates and variations: Schools differ on the weight of intention, divine grace, ritual, and knowledge in the transformation of karma.

Supportive

Bhagavad Gita 4.17

hinduism,gita,karma,ethics

The complexity of action and its consequences.

Reference: Bhagavad Gita 4.17.
Content: The verse distinguishes forms of action, inaction, and wrong action.
Use in debate: It helps show that karma is not a simplistic notion.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.5

hinduism,upanishad,karma,rebirth

A classic passage on action and future destiny.

Reference: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.5.
Content: The text relates the person to what they do and to what they become.
Use in debate: It is often used in classical formulations of karma and existential continuity.

Cula-kammavibhanga Sutta

buddhism,karma,ethics,sutta

A discourse on actions and their consequences.

Reference: Majjhima Nikāya 135.
Content: The text relates kinds of action to consequences in future experience.
Use in debate: It is an important source for karma and ethical differentiation.

Guru Granth Sahib on rebirth

sikhism,karma,rebirth,mukti

Passages mentioning the cycle of births and liberation.

Reference: Passages of the Guru Granth Sahib on karma and reincarnation.
Content: The text deals with conditioned existence, return, and the possibility of union/liberation through grace and divine remembrance.
Use in debate: It supports the Sikh integration of karma, rebirth, and grace.

Contrary

Tattvartha Sutra 8.1

jainism,karma,soul,tattvartha-sutra

Karmic influx into the soul.

Reference: Tattvartha Sutra 8.1.
Content: The text introduces the theme of the influx of karma and its bond with the soul.
Use in debate: It is central to the Jain doctrine of karma as a reality that affects the soul.