Ep 519: What Karma Really Means—And How It’s Misunderstood in the West

In today’s episode, we explore the beautifully simple yet powerful Law of Karma from the Advaita Vedanta tradition. Far from the Western caricature of a cosmic scoreboard, karma is a law of cause and effect—what you do, you experience. We unpack how right action aligns with your nature (swadharma), generates energy, and serves others, while wrong action dissipates it—even if it's not morally wrong. From destiny to free will, this talk dives into how you're both a product of your past and a producer of your future. Simple to understand, powerful to apply—try it for yourself.

The Daily Vedantic is a daily podcast and YouTube channel dedicated to the timeless wisdom of the Upanishads (https://thedailyvedantic.com/). Dating back to over 5,000 years ago, the source of nearly all Eastern Philosophy, and loved by Western giants from Emerson to Thoreau to Carl Jung and Alan Watts, studied daily by Joseph Campbell to Aldous Huxley to Arthur Schopenhauer and countless others, The Daily Vedantic aims to make this ancient philosophy as modern and accessible as it is simple, practical — and profound.

James Beshara ( https://www.twitter.com/jamesbeshara ) is a renowned startup founder of multiple companies, a prolific startup investor in 200+ others including some of the biggest startup names on the planet, a husband and father of three little girls, and philosophy student and teacher in Los Angeles.

James also co-hosts Yoga For Your Intellect (https://www.YFYI.co), a biweekly long-form conversational podcast with his teacher Joseph Emmett ( https://www.instagram.com/yogaforyourintellect )

James is a student of Swami Parthasarathy, the acclaimed author of Vedanta Treatise (Vedanta Treatise – The Eternities)  and teacher at Vedanta Academy in Malavli, India. As James says often, when you’re ready for the real thing, Swami’s daily lectures are where the true wisdom and systematic discovery of the world’s oldest continually studied philosophy resides: https://www.vedantaworld.org