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    What is my karma?

    A footprint in wet sand fills as the gentle tide returns.
    Short answer: Your karma, says Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, is at its core simply this: action. Past actions are impressions, future ones too — and your present action is the karma giving you a result right now. Unconscious action creates a chain of karma, while conscious action, according to Gurudev, can transcend it.

    What Gurudev says

    You know the moment: you wonder why exactly this is happening to you — and look for an explanation beyond plain chance. Gurudev begins his answer to the question of your karma very plainly, with a definition:

    Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The real meaning of is Karma is Action. Action can be classified into three: The past, present and future. The past actions are impressions, the future actions are also impressions and present actions is Karma that is giving you result now.

    From the official Art of Living website — "Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar"

    Your karma, then, isn't some mysterious outside force — it's simply your own action, right now, in this moment. In the book "An Intimate Note to the Sincere Seeker," Gurudev makes a more precise distinction about how differently action works:

    Unconscious action creates a chain of karma. Non-action can also create karma. But a conscious action transcends karma.

    From the book "An Intimate Note to the Sincere Seeker" — knowledge sheet 34, "Karma" (29 June 1995, California)

    So whether your action binds karma or carries you beyond it depends, for Gurudev, mainly on how consciously you act — not on whether you act at all. Even non-action doesn't escape karma. For seekers, Gurudev then describes a more precise breakdown in his Yoga Sutras talk:

    but for a seeker (sādhaka), karma is threefold. What is it? Good karma, bad karma, and mixed karma — mixture of good and bad, white, black, and gray.

    From a talk on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali — "Kaivalya Pāda 1", 00:14:12

    So for Gurudev, your karma is rarely just "good" or "bad" — it's usually a mixture, shaped by all the conscious and unconscious actions you've taken over time.

    What you can do

    1. See your karma as action, not as fate. By Gurudev's definition, karma is at its core simply action — your present action is giving you a result right now. That shifts the focus away from "fate" and toward what you're actually doing right now.
    2. Act more consciously, instead of just reacting. Gurudev makes a distinction: unconscious action binds you into a chain of karma, conscious action can carry you beyond it. Before you react, pause and ask yourself briefly whether it's coming from awareness or from automatic habit.
    3. Recognize that even non-action creates karma. Waiting, or looking away, isn't a neutral state for Gurudev — it can create karma too. That can help you stop constantly postponing conscious decisions.
    4. Don't expect pure "good" or "bad." For a seeker, karma is threefold according to Gurudev: good, bad and mixed. That can help you stop forcing your own karma into black-and-white categories.

    Frequently asked questions

    What is karma, explained simply? Very simply put, karma, for Gurudev, means action. Past, present and future actions each leave, and draw on, impressions that shape the present. Using the example of hurt, he also explains: what happens to you now is nature's response to something you caused yourself earlier — which brings more settledness than a feeling of being a victim.

    What is karma? At its core, says Gurudev, karma simply means action — past, present and future actions each leave their own impressions. On the question of worry, he takes this further: pleasant and unpleasant events alike arise according to your own karma and pass through you either way — there's really nothing you need to worry about.

    What does karma mean? Gurudev explains: karma means action. Past, present and future actions each leave, and draw on, impressions that shape the present. Elsewhere, he describes karma as the impression left by past actions, one that draws similar situations into the future, while present actions create new impressions in the mind.

    Why do seemingly undeserved bad things happen to some people? Gurudev says pleasant and unpleasant events alike arise according to your own karma and pass through you either way — there's really nothing you need to worry about. Using the example of hurt, he also explains: what happens to you now is nature's response to something you caused yourself in the past.

    Related questions

    Sources

    The quotes on this page come from:

    • Official Art of Living website — "Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar"
    • An Intimate Note to the Sincere Seeker — "Karma" (knowledge sheet 34, 29 June 1995, California)
    • Yoga Sutras of Patanjali — "Kaivalya Pāda 1" (YS 10), 00:14:12