[ SANSKRIT TERM ]
कर्म· karma
Action — and the residue every action leaves behind.
MEANING
Karma in the Gita is not the karmic-credit-score popularized in Western new age. It's simply action — physical, verbal, mental. The Gita's innovation, especially in Chapter 3, is karma-yoga: the discipline of acting fully without being entangled by the action's fruits. You do the action because it's yours to do, not because of what it gets you. This is the answer to Arjun's paralysis: you don't escape by not acting (inaction is also karma), you escape by acting from the right place. Modern reading: detachment is not indifference. It's the opposite of paralysis.