Karma is the fundamental law of the universe. All other laws are subservient to it and are the means by and through which it operates. Therefore it is called the Law of all laws. Karma, in the physical sense, is action and its appropriate reaction, like a ball thrown against a wall rebounds with a force equal to the force with which it was thrown. Science demonstrates that an amount of energy expended in producing a work generates a series of correlation of forces which are endless. But Theosophy shows that every act also has moral basis and metaphysical dimensions. This means that the universe is guided, controlled and animated by an almost endless series of hierarchies of sentient beings, from within without, in obedience to Cosmic and Moral Law, called Karma, so as to bring about the evolution of beings.

As applied to man, it means every action of his is produced and preceded by a thought, desire, intention and motive, and is productive of innumerable effects on the physical, mental, moral and emotional planes of being, causing disturbance in the equilibrium of the universe. Motive is the all-important factor which determines whether an action is productive of good or evil results. If the motive behind the thoughts and desires underlying the actions of a man is selfish, moved by desire for personal gratification, it cannot but, in the dynamic, intricate, interdependent web of being, deprive and hurt many other fellow-men and fellow-creatures and hinder their harmonious, unceasing, universal progression towards a higher life. The ever-active law unerringly and undeviatingly tends to restore the disturbed harmony by adjusting the effects along the lines of their causation through the beings that produced the cause, and during the process of such restoration of balance the latter feel the reaction as pain and suffering, and the beings hurt and deprived tend to be compensated or rewarded. Hence it is called the Law of Retribution in the one case and the Law of Compensation in the other. If, on the other hand, a desire and thought underlying an act has an altruistic motive and unselfish love, it harmonizes with the essential unity and aids the universal progression of all beings, and, consequently, brings about happiness, light and harmonious progress of all. The fruit of such action comes to the man as help and benefit to himself from all sides.

Therefore, the good and evil experiences that come to us are in reality caused by ourselves, depending on whether the thoughts and motives behind our actions have been in tune or out of tune with the universal harmony and progression. "'Good' and 'Harmony,' and 'Evil' and 'Disharmony,' are synonymous." (The Key to Theosophy, p. 204). Therefore we have to revise our personal basis of judging good and evil—what is pleasing and comforting as good and the contrary as evil—and adopt the impersonal, eternal verity expressed in the above axiom as our guide to right thought and action.

Our Karma is inseparably bound up with the Karma of our nation and of mankind because of the law of universal unity and universal causation, which means that each one is a copy of the whole, is in essential being the whole, evolving or unfolding on the basis of one universal plan towards one common goal. The sense of separateness that we feel is the illusion of the senses and in reality there is no separateness. Each unit of the race must make that inner progress by which each one may sense and feel one's real oneness with the all and realize that each labouring for the good of all without thought of self is the only way to true knowledge and true happiness. Selfish action indifferent to the general weal, can but be retrogressive, obstructive and productive of ignorance and sorrow. Hence Krishna's admonition in the Bhagavad-Gita (II, 49): "Miserable and unhappy are those whose impulse to action is found in its reward."

Our modern idea of "progress" is based on the idea of personal aggrandizement and national selfishness, oblivious of our deep obligation to the well-being of our fellow-men and fellow-creatures, especially those who are weak and needing help. This ignorance and negligence is the main source of the world's woe. It is contrary to the law of our being. It is wrong knowledge and false ideas that move the world today, the basis of materialism, which has contaminated even dead-letter religions and sects with the lethal idea of exclusiveness, indifferent—and other hostile—to others outside their fold. This is the real bane of India, the cause of its degradation.

If our actions were to affect only ourselves individually and no one else, it would not matter whether we sinned or lived a life of indifference. But the truth is that the action of each individual has far-reaching effect on the whole of mankind as well as on all the lower kingdoms of nature, for good or ill. This makes each one morally, and inescapably, responsible and accountable for his thoughts and actions. Thought is the real plane of action, and thought is far more potent in producing evil results than a deed, physical act being a mere mechanical expression which automatically follows the potency and power of thought. An evil or sensuous thought, as soon as generated in our mind, instantaneously acts on all mankind on the mental plane, stimulating similar thoughts of dark quality in other minds and even impelling many a sensitive prone to lower tendencies to commit the act. The countless lives which go to make up our incarnate existence receive the brute impulse and are condemned to fly to the brute kingdom when they leave our body, thus retrogressing. The sum of evil in the world thus swells by the prolific effects of our evil thoughts. Similarly, every noble impulse, thought and feeling of gratitude, kindness and good will, goes to swell the sum of good and to aid progressive forces in the world. And, these, like the homing birds, come back to affect us as our Karmic heirloom and family heredity, and determine our tendencies and true character—Samskaras.

The sum of the results of our thoughts and actions from an immeasurable past are stored as mental deposits (Vasanas) in our higher immortal mind (Karana Sarira), as well as in the indestructible life-atoms we use, linked as the two are by subtle magnetic threads of life, which cause the series of reincarnations, determining the environment and condition of each. It may be helpful or obstructive, just as we ourselves determined it in other previous bodies.

Human thoughts have dynamic power. They are living entities with power infused by the energy of our ideation and coloured by our desires. The cumulative force of human evil thoughts brings on cataclysms of nature and revolutions in society, affecting the masses who were responsible for its production, though the reaping of the effects of the causes they sowed may be far distant in point of time, after many incarnations, as Egos come back again and again together, in cyclic regularity, to reap the consequences of their past acts. Each individual, as each family and nation, thus becomes accountable for its thoughts and actions and can never escape from their consequences. Hence, to look for political or economic solutions to world problems, in ignorance of this potent moral law of being, is futile. Individual and national selfishness are the greatest enemies of man.

We often complain of an unfavourable environment that hems us in and wish that things were differently ordained for us. This is folly, as the environment in which one is born, one's individual situation, family peculiarities, social condition, national character and international relations, are all the outer expressions of the inner condition and character of the Egos who shaped these themselves. They cannot be mended by mere outer reforms, leaving the masses in ignorance of the law of our being. What are called good fortune and misfortune are nothing but the just deserts earned by each one. It is folly to try to escape them by calling upon the gods; they being impersonal forces and agents of Karma, cannot be enticed to bestow on man favours "by gift and hymn," or by ceremonies as recommended by the priest or the astrologer. Man cannot thus change his self-made destiny. It can be altered, improved and made better by none other than man himself by his own actions, with a full sense of responsibility and by a knowledge of the law of his being.

Retributive Karma does not reach us to castigate or condemn, it only brings to each individual or groups of individuals the exact and just results of their actions till the causes generated are fully balanced and neutralized. The solemn, painful experience of the retributive justice rouses in man and impulse to inner search for the meaning of pain and purpose of life. It unfolds, after many buffetings in life, an understanding of and a concern for the suffering of others, and gradually brings to birth the latent power of spiritual discernment, Buddhi, the faculty of apprehending truth directly and knowing good from evil, real from false. There is no other way by which man may progress except through life's experiences, which often bring pain and suffering. "It is the seed of freedom from rebirth." (The Voice of the Silence)

Every mean and selfish action sends us backward and not forward, while every noble thought and every unselfish deed are stepping-stones to the higher and more glorious planes of being....Progress can be attained, and only attained, by the development of the nobler qualities. (The Key to Theosophy, pp. 234-35, 233 )

Would you know whence it is that so many false spirits have appeared in the world, who have deceived themselves and others with false fire and false light, laying claim to information, illumination and openings of the divine Life, particularly to do wonders under extraordinary calls from God? It is this: they have turned to God without turning from themselves; would be alive to God before they are dead to their own nature. Now religion in the hands of self, or corrupt nature, serves only to discover vices of a worse kind than in nature left to itself. Hence are all disorderly passions of religious men, which burn in a worse flame than passions only employed about worldly matters; pride, self-exaltation, hatred and persecution, under a cloak of religious zeal, will sanctify actions which nature, left to itself, would be ashamed to own.

—William Law