In the Tattvartha Sutra, karma is presented as a subtle form of physical matter (pudgala) that actually adheres to the soul (jīva), rather than as a mere abstraction of moral causality. These karmic particles obscure the soul’s innate qualities of perfect knowledge, perception, bliss, and power, and thus account for the conditioned states in which living beings find themselves. Through activities of body, speech, and mind—especially when driven by passions and ignorance—this karmic matter flows toward the soul and binds with it, shaping both present experience and future embodiment. Karma therefore functions as the concrete mechanism by which the soul becomes entangled in the cycle of birth and death.

The Sutra describes a dynamic process in which karma affects the soul through stages such as influx (āsrava), bondage (bandha), and shedding (nirjarā). Influx occurs when mental, verbal, and physical activities, fueled by anger, pride, deceit, greed, and other defilements, open the channels for karmic matter to enter. Bondage is the actual fastening of these particles to the soul, with their duration and intensity conditioned by the quality of the actions and the inner state at the time they are performed. Over time, karma ripens and bears fruit in the form of various experiences and life conditions, and it can be worn away through disciplined practices such as austerities, meditation, and self-restraint.

To clarify the many ways karma conditions existence, the Tattvartha Sutra classifies it into eight principal types. Four are especially destructive to the soul’s essential qualities: knowledge-obscuring (jñānāvaraṇa), perception-obscuring (darśanāvaraṇa), deluding (mohanīya), and obstructive (antarāya). Four others primarily shape the framework of embodied life and experience: lifespan-determining (āyuḥ), body-making (nāma), status-determining (gotra), and feeling-producing (vedanīya). Together, these eight karmas govern what one knows and perceives, the clarity or confusion of one’s outlook, the obstacles encountered, the kind of body and social position obtained, the span of life, and the texture of pleasure and pain that is undergone.

Within this vision, liberation (mokṣa) is not a mysterious gift but the natural outcome of a complete purification of karmic matter. When the influx of new karma is halted through right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct, and when existing karmas are exhausted through their fruition and deliberate spiritual discipline, the soul is gradually freed from all bonds. As karmic veils fall away, the soul’s original luminosity—its infinite knowledge, perception, bliss, and energy—stands unobstructed. The Tattvartha Sutra thus portrays karma as both the chain that binds and the key that reveals the path to the soul’s own inherent freedom.