Karma means "activities" or "actions." In Sanskrit, the word karma comes from the original root word "krit." Karma indicates all activities -- physical, mental, spiritual, intellectual, conscious, or unconscious.  Everything that is happening around is karma.

Activities can be good, bad or neutral. Karma can lead us upward or downward or make us stand still. Karma is like earning money. You either save it, use it or lose it. A person who understands the purpose of karma has understood the Gita pretty well.  It is not easy even for the wise, as the Gita says, to understand the nature of karma. The whole world is born out of karma because creation itself is karma, from birth to death, until we realize God. Whether we like it or not, we are always doing some karma. When you are going to do karma, it is important to learn how to perform them so that you benefit and get the best results.

The purpose of karma is self realization. We have to do karma in order to wipe out some of the negative karmas of from our past and to balance our life.

There are evil karmas, such as gambling, drinking, drug abuse and murder. Those are Tamsik karmas. Then there are Rajsik karmas, such as lust and greed for name and fame. Almost all worldly people are Rajsik. There is always some expectation of reward in Rajsik karma. If you work, you expect money. There is nothing a worldly man does without some reword, purpose, selfishness or hope. Then there is Satvik karma. Karamas become satvik when we erase greed, lust and selfishness from our karmas. Satvik karma is truly selfless service.  That is very rare and very few can do it.  It leads us to saintlyhood.

It is important to learn about the nature of karma in the early stage of our life so we don't do activities that are wasteful and take away precious time. Often we trade one thing in order to get something else, but all of nature works for nothing in return. A Satvik person must use his reasoning and his consciousness and help his fellow man, as they need help. That alone will teach us what karma is. Karma is very complex and there is no religion that talks so much about karma as Hindu dharma. Gita is full of karma.

--Swami Radhanandaji