Within Sant Mat, karma is understood as a universal and impersonal law of cause and effect that governs the soul’s journey through birth, death, and rebirth. Every thought, word, and deed leaves a subtle impression and creates a corresponding consequence that must eventually be experienced. This law is not regarded as divine favoritism or punishment, but as a precise system of moral balance that shapes individual destiny and spiritual evolution. Both positive and negative actions generate karmic results, and even favorable circumstances are seen as part of this binding chain. In this way, karma functions as the mechanism by which the soul remains tied to the material and lower spiritual realms.

A nuanced classification of karma is central to this perspective. Sanchit karma refers to the vast storehouse of accumulated actions from countless past lives that have not yet borne fruit. From this reservoir, a portion called Pralabdh (or Prarabdh) karma is allotted to be worked out in the present lifetime, determining major life conditions such as body, relationships, and key events. Alongside these, Kriyaman karma consists of the new actions being performed now, which will yield future consequences unless they are spiritually resolved. All three types—whether associated with pleasant or painful outcomes—contribute to the soul’s continued entanglement in the cycle of transmigration.

Sant Mat stresses that even so‑called good karma, while producing more favorable experiences, still binds the soul because it remains within the jurisdiction of the karmic law and necessitates further births to reap its rewards. Ethical living—non‑violence in thought, word, and deed; honesty; sexual restraint; abstention from intoxicants; and a vegetarian diet—is therefore emphasized, not merely for worldly harmony but to minimize the creation of new, especially heavy, karmic entanglements. Yet moral refinement alone is not regarded as sufficient for ultimate freedom, since it cannot by itself lift the soul beyond the realm where karma operates.

The path points to inner spiritual practice and the grace of a living Satguru as the means to transcend this law altogether. Meditation on the inner Light and Sound (Shabd or Naam) is said to burn or exhaust karmic seeds more rapidly, gradually loosening the chains that bind the soul. At initiation, the Master is described as assuming responsibility for much of the disciple’s karmic burden, sealing the vast store of accumulated karma so that it need not all be worked out through future incarnations, while the karma allotted for the present life generally must still be borne, though it may be softened. Through sustained practice and the Master’s guidance, the soul is drawn beyond the regions where karma holds sway, ultimately attaining a state in which the law of karma no longer applies and complete liberation from birth and death is realized.