Law of Karma: Just Our Moral Balance Sheet or a Path to Sagehood and Fulfillment?

Abstract

This exploratory chapter presents an overview of the doctrine of Karma, as enunciated in Hindu spiritual texts. The doctrine of Karma is far more complex than its popular characterization: “What goes around comes around.” After discussing various types of Karma, it reviews various related concepts such as Karma and heredity, Karma and rebirth, Karma and fatalism, Karma and morality, and Karma and atonement. As a central piece, the chapter broaches the subject of Karma Yoga, the doctrine of selfless actions. This path of enlightened action is explored in great depth as an alchemy of sagehood, the realization of one’s highest self. It draws heavily on Bhagavad Gītā and Upaniṣads, the Hindu scriptures par excellence, and supports its position through copious quotations from these sources which perhaps more than any other works distill the finest wisdom of Vedas, the earliest books of knowledge. The words – Karma and Yoga – have become a regular part of everyday discourse in the West, and this chapter humbly proposes to contribute to the understanding of these ubiquitous terms.

The understanding of Karma and Karma Yoga (the path of selfless action) has tremendous implications regarding how we perform actions in the workplace and the moral underpinnings of the work we do. The chapter primarily focuses on the path of detached action (Karma Yoga) as a framework for performing selfless service. Perhaps, Karma Yoga furnishes the best set of guidelines to put service before self and to perform actions for the well-being of all beings. Everyone performs actions and Indian philosophy offers a way to convert actions (Karmas) into Karma Yoga, a way of “yoking” to the divine within, leading to sagehood without. The link between performing actions selflessly and servant leadership is also explored briefly.