Karma simple means gift for your deeds. If you do good deeds you are rewarded well but if you do bad deeds you are punished. Karma is something that follows you until many lifetimes. I good example of karma across lifetimes will be :-
A child who is born to a king will eventually be a king. That child will live a lavish life with all riches and comforts. But the child has done nothing to get it. This is the child’s past life karma. Similarly, a child who is born to a pauper will have a life full of struggles, pain and sufferings without any fault of the child. This is also the child’s past life karma.
There are two categories of Karma:
Karma due to the impressions embedded in the mind
Karma that takes place through the five elements – Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ether
When a desire to create arises from within you, then that desire or feeling is Karma. It is Sukshma Karma (action at the subtle level). The moment a desire arises in your mind, let us say to build a new building, then that’s it – the work or the action has already happened. For example, when the architect has made the blueprint of the house, then the construction of the house has already happened.
Then there is Sthula Karma (action at the material level), such as bringing the bricks, stones, mortar, and constructing the house with them.
So, the subtle desires or feelings that arise beyond the realm of the five elements is also called Karma, and the action that takes place in the realm of the five principle elements is also called Karma. Further to this, whatever impressions (as a result of the action) get imprinted upon the mind also becomes Karma that one must go through.
