“Mr. Old: Question 4. How far does the general belief in Karma operate towards the acceptance of fatalism?
Mme. Blavatsky: If you are ignorant, you see fatalism.
Mrs. Besant: But the way it comes from outsiders sometimes is, that supposing you believe in these evils, why should you go against them?
Mme. Blavatsky: That is what the Easterners do. We don’t do it, but the Eastern people do.
Mr. B. Keightley: Is it right to do that?
Mme. Blavatsky: Not always. When it is done as the Muslim does it, it is bad, because it is crass fatalism.
Mr. B. Keightley: Take the people in Burma. They practically, until they were brought under the influence of Olcott and yourself, sat down under the state of things.
Mme. Blavatsky: They accepted it not on account of Karma, but on account of [ ].
Mr. B. Keightley: Well that is Karma in another form. It is really an important question, what is the right spirit to develop, to cultivate in yourself in reference to the action of Karma.
Mme. Blavatsky: To do your duty on this plane. Not to go and kick against Karma, any more than what a Christian will tell you – don’t fly into the face of Providence, to a certain extent. But it {is} your duty when you see any evil to try and avoid it, not only for yourself – which would be very little – but for anyone else.
Mrs. Besant: And try to help other people out of it.
Mme. Blavatsky: Yes, more than you help yourself.
Mr. Burrows: Is not the true solution that we should separate “it” from humanity?
Mr. B. Keightley: Here you get this: Before the last 25 years, the population in India, broadly speaking, sat down and submitted to European rule and domination – I am speaking very broadly – but now what they do is to try and wake themselves up from their sloth and apathy, and to reorganize and to start a fresh current of activity in which the Theosophical Society has had a very large share. They are reacting, and are doing their best to react against the condition into which their past history in Karma had brought them. Is that right or is that wrong?
Mme. Blavatsky: It is right, because a life of inaction is worse than a life of action.
Mr. B. Keightley: If a man feels the impulse in himself, it is a part of the law working through him.
Mr. Old: It is like Bailey’s definition, “Freewill in man is necessity in play.” (Phillip James Bailey, English Poet)
Mme. Blavatsky: Individually, there is free will, but once you take it collectively, there is no free will. It operates only with personalities. But speak of a nation or think of a nation, what kind of a free will has it? It is simply a dry leaf that is blown hither and thither, and sent by the wind everywhere.
You have no right to sit and do nothing. You are obliged to be coworkers with Nature. But otherwise, as is said in the Apocalypse, “Nature will spew you out of the mouth.” (Revelation 3:16)”
H. P. Blavatsky
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 