The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

╭ chapter three
in the grand scheme of things, and there is no way to avoid
this obligation – except perhaps by the complete enlightenment
which loosens all the old bonds of karma.
Here the Gita refers to the doctrine of karma, one of the
basic teachings in all Hindu and Buddhist scriptures. Karma
literally means deed or action; what is sometimes called the
“law of karma” refers to an underlying law of cause and effect
that is seen to permeate all existence. The idea is that every
action leads to a reasonable result – and, consequently, that
everything that happens can be traced to something done in
the past. Actions determine destiny: this is the basic idea of
karma. If anything happens to us that is truly good, we must
have done something in the past to deserve it; if something ill
befalls us, then at some time in the past we did something that
was not so meritorious. This is a basic moral law that all great
spiritual traditions share: the belief that we reap what we sow.
The Hindu tradition gave a great deal of thought to this
problem of moral cause and effect, and generation after generation
of spiritual teachers fathomed its depths and implications.
One fear that developed over time was that all action
was in a sense an open door to bondage: anything a person did
would bind him to the endless cycle of cause and effect. Some
“fruits” of action would of course be pleasant – not all karma
is painful. But even this pleasure could be a trap, because we
would seek it compulsively, tying ourselves tighter and tighter
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