The Theosophical
Society in Australia

Basic to all the concepts which we have discussed in our previous letters is a principle which restores equilibrium whenever it has been disturbed anywhere in the universe. This principle has been called by different names: the law of compensation or the law of retribution, the law of cause and effect and the law of balance. In theosophical literature, it is known as karma, a Sanskrit word that simply means 'action'. However, the concept of karma includes the fact that every action has its consequence. The principle or law has been described as the working of the Absolute in the process of manifestation and as manifestation working to restore the harmony of the Absolute.

Karma is a profound and complex subject, and it is doubtful that we can hope to understand it in its fullest meaning and implications at our present stage of development. But to gain some insight into the principle does help considerably to clarify what may have appeared to us as the hopeless riddle of life, and gives us greater courage to go forward.

Almost from the time we begin to think, if we are at all perceptive, we become aware of what seem to us to be enormous inequalities - inequalities of birth, of circumstances, of intellect, of talent, et cetera. - in fact, inequalities in every aspect of life. Disaster strikes suddenly in the life of an honest, conscientious, devoutly religious person. A young person of great charm and intellectual promise is snatched out of physical existence, while an apparently useless person lives on to a ripe old age. Theosophy suggests that the explanation of these seeming inequities may be found in this great law of karma, which, in its most profound philosophical sense, is the method by which the divine will impels to perfection.

Karma operates wherever there is relationship. For where there is relationship, there is action, and where there is action there is reaction. Every reaction becomes, in turn, a cause for further action, and so on throughout all the intricate network of relationships in which everything in the universe is involved. At the same time, each effect is, in some measure, a balancing of its cause. Until the human kingdom is reached there is no individual or personal karma, for without self-consciousness no entity can be ultimately responsible for what it does. But karma has a special significance for human beings because they are morally and spiritually responsible for their own motives and actions.

In The Key to Theosophy, H.P. Blavatsky writes of karma as 'the ultimate law of the universe, the source, origin and fount of all other laws which exist throughout Nature. Karma is the unerring law which adjusts effect to cause on the physical, mental, and spiritual planes of being.'

Thus, what we see as injustice in this world is really this adjustment taking place. If life were limited to the brief span of one existence on earth, then indeed our individual experience might seem undeserved, whether happy or tragic. But in the light of the cyclic law of rebirth, or reincarnation, which we discussed in our last letter, we can understand that we are experiencing the inevitable effects of causes which we ourselves set in motion.

Much of our karma can be and actually is worked out in a single incarnation when the right circumstances are available. But, whether sooner or later, that which we send forth must return to us. This is true not because an action must have 'punishment' or 'reward', but because each of us is a continuum at the inner levels. There is not, and cannot be, any break in who we really are. This fact further implies that what happens to us occurs through the will of our own inmost being. At that deep centre, we have willed the experience through which we can learn the lessons necessary to become ever more perfect, lessons by which we can best remedy some deficiency in our own character.

In the school of life, karma is the discipline, a vital factor in our cosmic education. It is the will to perfection operating in our lives through which we learn the ultimate secret of love - not as a sentimental emotion, but as the most profound mystery of our being. Our certainty of eventual triumph lies in the fact that the law is impersonal and we ourselves set up the conditions through which it operates. As H.P. Blavatsky has pointed out, 'It is not the wave which drowns a man, but the personal action of the man who deliberately places himself under the impersonal action of the laws that govern the ocean's motion. Karma creates nothing, nor does it design. It is man who plans and creates and causes, and karmic law adjusts the effects, which adjustment is not an act but universal harmony, tending ever to resume its original position.'

Let us look at mathematical law as another example. It is impersonal; it is what it is, and we cannot change it. If we would use it, we must obey it. We can add a given set of figures and get one result; we can subtract one number from another and get a different result; we can multiply, divide, carry values to the nth power — in all these ways we get varying results. It would never occur to us that the law of mathematics is punishing us when we subtract or divide, or that it is rewarding us when we add or multiply. We write a cheque and deduct the amount from our bank account. The law isn't punishing us. We may have been extravagant and, if so, we will undoubtedly meet some privation as a result. But we ourselves are responsible. We know that the next time we make a deposit we act to stabilise our bank account, but we do not consider that the law of mathematics is rewarding us.

Actually, just as we modify or change mathematical results by the use we make of the law, so, at every moment, we modify the karmic results of previous actions. Throughout the early part of our evolution this is an unthinking and unknowing process. But once we begin to understand what is taking place, we can proceed more intelligently. When we can learn to act because the action is right, without thought for the fruit of action, we shall begin to achieve that inner balance which is in harmony with the essential equilibrium of the universe and so fulfil the law.

It has been said that the truest interpretation of karma recognises that while each of us is unique, the wholly isolated individual does not exist. Each life is intertwined with all humanity's life through ever expanding circles of family, nation and even planetary extent.

Learning to use this great law intelligently, then, is not merely that we may improve the conditions of our own lives in this and future incarnations but, more nobly, that the whole of humankind may be by that much advanced in its progress toward perfection. 'To understand karma in its fullest operation and significance', wrote C. Jinarajadasa, 'requires the wisdom of an Adept, but to understand the principle of karma is to revolutionise the possibilities of life and of one's self'.

Ideas for Study and Thought

Can you trace the working of karma in your own life at the physical, emotional and mental levels? Although you cannot remember specific acts of which your present karma is the result, in what ways can you trace the nature of those acts and thus gain greater self-knowledge?

How can understanding the law of karma help you to achieve a happier and more useful life? How does karma aid in furthering the evolution of humankind and the universe?

Some Suggested Reading

Again, there are so many books, and chapters in a number of basic theosophical texts, on the subject of karma that it is difficult to select just a few to recommend. The earnest student will soon find many more to add to this list. 

Karma, Annie Besant

Karma: Rhythmic Return to Harmony, ed. by V. Hanson, R. Stewart and S. Nicholson

Karma and Rebirth, Christmas Humphreys

The Christening of Karma, Geddes McGregor

The Key to Theosophy, H.P. Blavatsky, Section XI

Ancient Wisdom - Modern Insight, Shirley Nicholson, Chapter 13

Available here and now: The Human Journey