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Vedanta says that if you understand Dharma and Karma, you will know everything. Dharma is usually defined as purpose or truth. When you find your true purpose in life and live in total alignment with that, your actions will become spontaneously correct and you will never create Karma.

The most powerful tool you have on your spiritual path is meditation, especially a practice that includes mantras. Meditation is a journey from activity into silence. In Primordial Sound Meditation, mantras or sounds are used with no particular meaning. The meaning of a thought holds the memory and desire and thus the Karma. A mantra with no meaning has no Karma. When you think your mantra in meditation, you are taken beyond the range of Karma; you transcend all memories and desires and slip into the field of infinite possibilities.

With regular practice, you begin to live from that level of infinite possibilities instead of the limited possibilities created by Karma. Meditation realigns you with your true self, leads you back to your true purpose (Dharma) and allows you to “wash” away Karma on all levels.

Commitment to your spiritual path is the key to escaping from the Karmic prison you have created for yourself—and to enjoy unbounded freedom in every moment.

The Bhagavad Gita says “the course of karma is unfathomable.” And so it is.

In Sanskrit the word karma means action. Sanskrit provides a precise vocabulary for this abstract field that can help us navigate through it with more assurance. Every action creates an experience, and the memory of that experience is referred to as samskara. They are the mental impressions or patterns formed by repeated experience.

Karma blend into each other as well. The free choices we make now, then go to become our determined karma in the future. We can also perform spiritual actions now that modify or transcend the binding influence of our past actions. When we experience our non-local Self, the Atman, in meditation we awaken that inner essence that is beyond the influence of time, space, and karma. So even though we think and act in the world of karma, we are no longer identified with it and therefore our Self is no longer bound to it. Also, as the silent witness or sakshi̧ develops over time through meditation, simply being aware of our karmic patterns or vasanas, will gradually dissolve their intensity and grip on us, and thus more creativity and choice is available to us under whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.

Finally, we can use the tool of sankalpa or intention, in order to create new karmic patterns in our consciousness that will be supportive of our spiritual freedom, instead of enmeshing us in samsara further.

Karma is a prison to the soul, but the action of spiritual practice is karma that can liberate us from it as well. The Bhagavad Gita also says “yoga is skillful karma.” If we learn to act from Self-awareness, every action is an act of creativity and freedom.