Jain thought portrays karma not merely as an abstract law of moral retribution, but as an extremely subtle form of matter that adheres to the soul (jīva). This karmic matter obscures the soul’s innate qualities of knowledge, perception, bliss, and energy, weighing it down and binding it to the cycle of birth and death. Every activity of body, speech, and mind—especially when colored by passions such as anger, pride, deceit, and greed—attracts these karmic particles. Karma thus functions as a precise, impersonal mechanism: there is no divine judge, only the natural consequence of one’s own inner states and outward actions.

The impact of karma extends to virtually every dimension of existence. It shapes the realm and form of birth—human, animal, heavenly, or hellish—as well as lifespan, bodily constitution, health, and social standing. It also governs inner experience: the degree of happiness or suffering, clarity or obscurity of perception, and the strength or weakness of spiritual resolve. Jain teachings distinguish karmas that directly cloud the soul’s qualities from those that determine external conditions, and further classify them into eight principal categories affecting knowledge, perception, feelings of pleasure and pain, delusion, lifespan, body, status, and the capacity to act. All worldly fortune and misfortune are thus seen as the ripening of previously bound karmas.

Yet this vision is not fatalistic, because the same doctrine that explains bondage also points to release. Karmic matter flows toward and binds to the soul when the senses and mind are unguarded and when actions are driven by passion; this is the process of influx and bondage. Through ethical restraint, non-violence, truthfulness, chastity, non-stealing, and non-possessiveness, the inflow of new karma can be checked. Through austerities, meditation, repentance, and disciplined conduct, existing karmas are gradually exhausted and fall away. When right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct are perfected, all karmic coverings are finally removed, and the soul abides in its pure, omniscient, and blissful state, beyond further rebirth.