I just read something really fascinating while preparing for a midterm: according to one interpretation, the concept of karma as it is laid out in the Bhagavad Gita is not some sort of universal balance sheet (tallying an individual's righteous and shameful actions) but rather a means of expressing the natural tendency for a human being to repeat actions they have already performed. For example, in weightlifting it's important to learn a particular movement with proper form, because if you learn to move in a way which is antagonistic to bodily health you are certain to cause harm once you start moving in that manner with significant weight. It's easier to learn something right the first time than to unlearn and relearn a particular skill or set of movements, thus the emphasis on getting it correct upfront.

In a similar vein, karma is simply a means of describing one's tendency to fall into comfortable patterns; if one chooses to do good works, it will be easier to perform similar works in the future. If you go through the trouble to volunteer at a local soup kitchen once or twice, you will become acquainted with the people and the neighborhood and feel more comfortable doing so in the future. Likewise if you choose to filch five dollars out of a family member's wallet, you will have overcome the greatest hurdle in making that initial decision so that in the future stooping to such a level will feel almost commonplace. Karma simply takes that tendency to repeat an action or disposition to a spiritual level, implying that a soul is doomed to carry its predilections from one existence to the next. For example, a habitual smoker who perished from lung cancer might find themselves inexplicably attracted to the scent and taste of tobacco in their next incarnation. Thus does the burden of previous poor choices weigh on one's future decisions.

Anyway, I thought that was cool and wanted an excuse to stop studying. As you were.