Within the Smārta tradition, karma and reincarnation are understood through the non-dual vision of Advaita Vedānta. Karma is regarded as a universal moral law of cause and effect, operating at ethical, psychological, and ritual levels, and binding the individual soul (jīva) to the cycle of birth and death through attachment and ignorance. Actions performed with ego and clinging generate merit and demerit, which in turn shape pleasant and painful experiences. This karmic process is impersonal yet perfectly ordered, and it applies to all beings within saṁsāra. The tradition recognizes different aspects of karma—accumulated, already-fructifying, and newly-generated—each playing a role in shaping one’s present and future circumstances. Dharma and virtuous conduct are emphasized as means to produce purifying karma and to prepare the mind for higher realization.

Reincarnation, or punarjanma, is viewed as the repeated embodiment of the jīva according to its karmic impressions. The subtle body carries these karmic seeds from one life to another, leading to various births—human, celestial, or lower—until self-knowledge is attained. All states of existence, including heavens and hells, are temporary expressions of karmic fruition rather than final destinations. From the standpoint of ordinary experience, this cycle of saṁsāra is very real and compelling, yet from the highest standpoint of Advaita it is ultimately grounded in ignorance of one’s true nature. There is no notion of eternal damnation; rather, every being moves through changing conditions shaped by its own actions.

In this framework, the worship of multiple deities characteristic of the Smārta tradition is integrated into the understanding of karma and liberation. Śiva, Viṣṇu, Devī, Gaṇeśa, Sūrya and other deities are revered as diverse manifestations of the one Brahman/Īśvara, the intelligent and moral order that sustains the universe and administers the law of karma. Devotional worship of any chosen deity, combined with righteous living and scriptural study, generates auspicious karma and purifies the mind, gradually loosening the grip of ignorance. Yet the tradition is clear that favorable karma and higher rebirths, while valuable, do not by themselves end saṁsāra. The final release, mokṣa, comes through direct realization that the true Self (Ātman) is non-different from Brahman and in reality was never bound. When such knowledge arises, karmic bondage ceases, no further rebirth occurs, and the cycle of karma and reincarnation is transcended, even while it continues to operate at the empirical level for those who have not yet awakened.