Karma
Karma (Sanskrit karman, "action", "work") is a central concept in Indian religious traditions — Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism — which holds that every intentional action generates consequences that return to the agent, in this life or future ones. It is the "moral law of the universe": what you do comes back.
Karma in Hinduism and Buddhism
In Hinduism, karma is one of the three main currents that keep the soul in the cycle of samsara (reincarnations), alongside dharma (duty) and moksha (liberation). The scriptures (Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita) detail how actions create karmic "seeds" that bloom in future lives.
In Buddhism, the concept was refined: karma is not mechanical punishment, but ethical causality. There is no "punishing god"; suffering comes from one's own ignorant actions. Karma can be purified by practice (meditation, virtue, wisdom).
Karma in Western New Age
The concept entered the West in the 19th century (Theosophical Society) and was much simplified by the 20th-century New Age. The phrase "it's karma" became a banality mixing Christian guilt, determinism, and moralism. This view is a distortion: in the original tradition, karma is dynamic, transformable, and implies responsibility — not fatalism.