KARMA is the law of cause and effect, acting upon all planes. It is entirely impersonal in this action; and yet it acts wisely, intelligently, and equitably, although the source of this intelligence and wisdom proceeds from the Unknowable. It does not reason, as we understand reasoning, nor is its wisdom accompanied by any mentality conceivable to human minds. Given a cause, and its corresponding effect will follow inevitably. Could this law be violated in but one instance, however trifling, the whole universe would fall into chaos, like a child's castle of cards.

Descartes founded his famous system of philosophy upon the postulate, Cogitoy ergo sum * How much firmer a basis is afforded for the most profound conception of the universe in this law of Karma - that Effect follows Cause! It is a unit of measurement applicable to every conceivable point of space, every atom, every plane of being, every manifestation of consciousness in all this illimitable Cosmos. Taking its source in the Unknowable, yet having its action plainly perceivable upon our planes of life, it is the link which binds the knowable to the Unknowable. It is the one supreme testimony of unity and design, of intelligence and justice, in nature. Karma is but another name for the great Unknowable, CAUSELESS CAUSE.

Effect follows cause in the emergence of Cosmos from Chaos; in the struggle for existence among the newly formed bodies of a solar system; in the "process of the suns" as they wing their way around their inconceivably vast orbits; in the aberrations of an Uranus, revealing the presence of a Neptune; in the involution and evolution of humanities; in the birth, life, and death of a man, of a molecule, or of a planetary system; in the racial, national, or social environments of the individual; in the presence of evil and injustice in the world; in the intellectual capacity of men; in their appetites, passions, and desires; in their spiritual aspirations; in their diseases and vices; - in short, in every conceivable juxtaposition or combination of thought, act, or event, the Law is absolute; Karma, all-pervading. As far as the most daring generalizations of the human mind can reach, its sway is absolute. No exception can be postulated. Even the CAUSELESS CAUSE, the final goal of all rational philosophies, seems to yield obeisance to this law which proceeds out of its own abysses, for the manifestation of universes would appear to be only links in an Infinite Cycle of Necessity.

* "I think; therefore I exist."

Once the universality of the action of Karma is recognized, we have a safe basis for our future explorations. It is an unfailing touchstone, wherewith we can test the truth of any proposition, whether religious, scientific, or philosophical. Its application to the problems of human life - to which, indeed, the term is commonly limited - constitutes the motive of this chapter. The importance of this phase of its study cannot be overestimated when we recognize that our whole life is but a succession of Nidanas, a chain of causes and effects, of which each effect becomes a cause in its own turn, and so on, in endless progression. No act, however trivial; no thought, however faint; no emotion, however fleeting - but is a cause, a bit of woof woven in the warp of our being, and giving it color and texture. An idle word - how often it changes a whole life; a thoughtless act, whose effects, or karma, follow us to and even beyond the grave! For it is a portion of this law that while any act or thought of ours may have its effect either within us or externally upon others, the reaction, which is this effect become a cause again, must expend itself upon us individually. And it is most difficult to judge of the comparative magnitude of the causes we set in motion.

A pebble thrown into the ocean seems a trifling cause, yet every separate drop in all the vast expanse of waters has to readjust its relations, as a direct and purely physical effect. And in addition to this permanent readjustment, the law of reaction, or restored equilibrium, requires every iota of force thrown off by the falling pebble to be returned to its source. In other words, the pebble has to receive a shock equal to that which it set in motion. In this simile, the original cause would be the falling pebble; its effect, the readjustment of the waters of the entire ocean; the reaction, or its personal Karma, the impulse of returning pressure, which, in relation to it, has become a cause again. In like manner, every act or thought of a man affects as a cause all other men in some degree, and this effect upon them will be returned to him, as a new cause, modifying his being to the extent of the effects it originally produced.

It will thus be seen how impossible it is for any one to separate his Karma from that of his fellow-men. The interweaving and correlations are necessarily infinite; and naught but Infinite Wisdom, as embodied in the divine law of Karma, could mete out exact justice to us for all the multiform deeds of a lifetime. Isolation is a chimera. A Crusoe, on a desert island, will reach out to and affect the whole mass of humanity; for the pictures of his acts and thoughts, reflected in the astral light, will be re-reflected upon the physical plane, and influence to some degree the thought of the world. No man can think a good thought without the whole of humanity being somewhat the better for it; no man can sin against his higher nature without lowering the moral standard of the whole world to some extent.

This inevitable and necessary interblending of all our Karmas forms a true and scientific basis for the Theosophic conception of universal brotherhood - a reason, logical and necessary, for the practice of altruism. It also affords an occasion for the separation of karmic adjustments into classes, according as these relate to the individual himself or to his immediate or remote environments. Thus, that aspect which views the Karma of all the units as one great whole would be termed world Karma; that which relates one to his race, his nation, his community, and his family, would be respectively, race, national, social, and family Karma; while the comparatively minute portion remaining would constitute his own, or his individual Karma. Yet this almost infinitesimal portion, this drop in the sea, is that with which we principally concern ourselves, as the very apotheosis of selfishness. Our hopes, our purification, our progress, seem, to our blinded eyes, of paramount importance, so subtle do vanity and self-esteem become when transmuted to higher planes.