Within the vision of Non-Dual Shaivism, karma is acknowledged as operative, yet it is framed entirely within the primacy of consciousness (Śiva-Śakti) as the sole ultimate reality. Karma belongs to the domain of limitation, where consciousness appears as a finite individual subject to birth, death, pleasure, and pain. It functions through māyā and the veiling power that generates the sense of being a small, separate doer. In this way, karmic impressions and tendencies shape the stream of experience, reinforcing the contracted identity that feels bound and vulnerable. The law-like regularity of karma thus governs only the empirical order, never touching the absolute nature of consciousness itself.

From the standpoint of this tradition, the individual who feels bound by karma is none other than Śiva appearing in a self-limited mode. Śiva, as pure consciousness, is not truly a doer or enjoyer in the restricted sense, and therefore is never actually bound by action and its results. What appears as a chain of cause and effect is understood as the dynamic play of Śakti, the free and spontaneous activity of consciousness exploring its own possibilities. The apparent bondage of karma is therefore a function of misidentification: as long as there is ignorance of one’s identity with universal consciousness, karmic forces seem compelling and real.

Liberation is described not as the mere exhaustion or cancellation of karma, but as recognition (pratyabhijñā) of one’s ever-present identity with Paramashiva. When the root sense of smallness and limited doership collapses, karma loses its binding power, even though the momentum of past actions may continue to unfold at the level of body and mind. For the liberated being, karmic activity is no longer experienced as an external law imposing itself, but as the natural, unforced expression of consciousness. In this light, karma becomes a means rather than an obstacle, a structured aspect of the divine play through which recognition dawns.

Spiritual practice, grace, and insight are all situated within this same field of consciousness, and they function to dissolve the contracted sense of self that sustains karmic bondage. Actions undertaken in this spirit are still karmic in form, yet they serve to reveal that all doing and experiencing have always been movements of Śiva-Śakti. Ultimately, karma is neither denied nor absolutized: it is affirmed as real within the relative sphere, while simultaneously seen as an expression of the freedom of consciousness that, in its true nature, has never been bound at all.