Within the vision of Vishishtadvaita Vedanta associated with Ramanuja, karma is the law that governs embodied existence, yet it never stands apart from the sovereignty of the supreme Lord, Vishnu. The entire field of birth, death, and rebirth is structured by the moral consequences of action: puṇya and pāpa shape the type of body one receives, the span of life, and the mixture of pleasure and pain that unfolds. The immense diversity of living beings, their capacities and circumstances, is thus intelligible as the outworking of beginningless karma, administered by an omniscient and just God. Karma thereby sustains both moral order and cosmic order, while preserving the benevolence and justice of the divine ruler who dispenses its fruits.

At the same time, karma is precisely what binds the jīva to saṃsāra. As long as accumulated karmic stock remains, the soul continues to assume new embodiments, moving through higher and lower states according to its past deeds. Yet the jīva is not a mere puppet of past causes: present choices still matter, generating new karma and shaping future experience, and thus moral responsibility is fully affirmed. Righteous conduct and the performance of prescribed duties, especially when understood as karma-yoga, purify the mind and character, creating favorable conditions for devotion to arise and deepen. In this way, karma functions as a preparatory discipline that refines the soul and disposes it toward genuine turning to God.

However, karma, precisely because it belongs to the realm of cause and effect, cannot by itself break the chain of cause and effect. Liberation does not result from the mechanical exhaustion of deeds alone, but from the descent of divine grace, awakened through bhakti and consummated in complete surrender (prapatti or śaraṇāgati). Devotion to Vishnu, offered with self-surrender, invites God’s gracious intervention, by which the karmic bondage that causes rebirth is finally destroyed and no further accumulation of binding karma occurs. For the liberated soul, there is no return to saṃsāra; freed from the law of karma, it abides eternally in the Lord’s presence, engaged in loving service. Thus karma is both the principle that explains bondage and moral diversity, and the field within which the soul is prepared for the grace that alone can transcend it.