“Mr. Old: These are questions such as would come from a person beginning to search out Theosophical truth, and I thought myself that it would be a leader to the issue of this new book, The Key to Theosophy. I thought a consideration of some of the elementary questions would not only fill up a very pleasant evening, but, at the same time, would excite some interest in the book which is now approaching completion. They are mere elementary questions on Karma, Devachan, and Reincarnation; the How, When, and Where of Theosophy. Question 1. What is Karma?
Mme. Blavatsky: Am I really expected to answer this?
Mr. Old: You are.
Mme. Blavatsky: Karma is the law of retribution. Now, Mr. Bertram Keightley, go on.
Mr. B. Keightley: They would much rather listen to you than to me. However, Karma is, as HPB began to say, the law of retribution – that which is recognized by modern science as the law of cause and effect; but although that law is absolutely universal, the law of Karma is more frequently used in a narrower sense as applying more particularly to the law of cause and effect acting on the moral plane.
Literally, it means simply action, and it expresses the idea that every action is productive of consequence, and so the chain of causation goes on infinitely; but, it is not simply that causes operate blindly, because in the Theosophical view the law of Karma is absolute intelligence; and it also has to be remembered that the law of Karma applies to the individual. It is not merely that a man performs certain actions.
Mme. Blavatsky: Stop. You say that the law of Karma is intelligent.
Mr. B. Keightley: I said “intelligence”.
Mme. Blavatsky: I say it is not. It is neither intelligence nor non-intelligence.
Mr. B. Keightley: It is absolute intelligence.
Mme. Blavatsky: Because you will make of it immediately a personal god, and I protest against that. That is to say, that everything that falls under the sway or the influence of that ever-present law will have certain effects, as in the physical world there is a concatenation of causes and effects always.
For instance, if I do like that, I will just hurt my hand; the pain I feel in my hand will be the effect of having done that; so it is in the world of moral causes, but you cannot and must not say it is intelligent or intelligence. It is simply the absolute harmony, absolute – well, call it intelligence, wisdom, anything you like. There again I am stuck for a word.
Mr. B. Keightley: It is true to say it acts with intelligence.
Mme. Blavatsky: It does not act. It is our actions that act, and that awaken into all kinds of influences. Look here, if you say that Karma acts and you say it has intelligence, immediately you suggest the idea of a personal god. It is not so, because Karma does not see and Karma does not watch, and does not repent as the Lord God repented.
Karma is a universal law, immutable and changeless.”
H. P. Blavatsky
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 