Karma first meant ritual action and came to mean any intentional action and the results it brings. In the Indian traditions every deed leaves a trace that ripens as experience, in this life or a future one, binding the doer to the round of rebirth. The traditions differ on how karma works, but agree that liberation means freedom from its bonds.
Karma
Action and its consequences: the law by which deeds shape a person’s future in this life and the next.
Also: karman