What is Karma?
Karma is a belief by certain religions, specifically by Buddhists and Hindus, that all actions made by humans in this lifetime have a consequence that will come back to them. Everything that is happening to a person’s life at the moment, whether good or bad are the product of something that he has done in the past life, or in his current life.
Both Hindus and Buddhists believe in the concept of reincarnation, or the transference of the soul after the body has passed away. They believe that whatever a person is reborn as is his own karma. For instance, if a person is reborn as a worm, then that person must have had a lot of bad karma to make up for. This explains the reverence that these religions give to animals, the belief that by killing an insect, they might actually be killing the body of their own grandfather.
Karma is parallel to the common western saying ‘you reap what you sow’. Good deeds beget good karma, while bad deeds beget bad karma.
The concept of karma is counterintuitive to the Christian (who do not believe in reincarnation) view of divine crime and punishment, where life’s drama can be attributed to ‘God’s will’, or in that retribution for an individual’s sufferings lie in the hands of God.