The Sanskrit word “karma” refers to a universal law of action and reaction.
Yoga wisdom texts describe three kinds of karma: harmonious, dissonant, and transcendental.
Harmonious karma consists of actions that are aligned with cosmic order and generate correspondingly harmonious reactions, otherwise known as “good karma.”
Conversely, dissonant karma, actions that conflict with cosmic order, produce negative reactions: “bad karma.”
Now here’s the catch: in yoga philosophy, bad karma is bad and good karma . . . is also bad. That’s because karma is something that we want to avoid altogether.
Karma, by itself, is by definition an action taken in pursuit of a material desire.
Pursuing material desires reinforces our absorption in material consciousness and keeps us trapped on the karmic hamster wheel of material existence, which is the very thing that yoga is meant to free us from.
That’s why the Bhagavad-gita recommends the path of Karma-yoga. Karma-yoga is the path of transcendental action; action that doesn’t generate any reaction, good or bad.
The Bhagavad-gita isn’t a handbook for gaming the karmic system to our advantage nor does it promote the ethical pursuit of karmic profits; it promotes putting an end to karma altogether.
Practicing karma-yoga allows us to act without adding any new reactions to our existing backlog of reactions-in-waiting and gives us an opportunity to empty out the stockpile of reactions we’ve accrued over the course of a gazillion previous lives.
The result of emptying out our karmic backlog is freedom from the obligation to experience any further karmic reactions, otherwise known as moksha: liberation.
If you want to learn how karma really works and how to act without generating a reaction please join me for my workshop this weekend: Beyond Action and Reaction: Mastering Karma Yoga for a Liberated Life.
Check out my events page for more.