The Law of Karma means: any qualitative action causes a similar qualitative reaction returning to the doer personally. It is based on the urge of material nature to keep balance between the opposite energies in her dualistic field of activities, which has artificially been extrapolated between subjective perceptions, such as hot/cold, man/woman, light/darkness, good/bad, ignorance/knowledge, etc.
Actually, nature has three material modes or qualities: tamo-guna (inertia in ignorance); rajo-guna (activity in passion); sato-guna (knowledge in goodness). The soul in ignorance will create tremendous quantities of bad karma, or negative reactions following his extremely egotistic activities and spiritual laziness. The passionate soul is a fruitive worker laboriously creating a lot of material happiness and an equal quantity of misery. A relatively small section of humanity has advanced to the mode of goodness and knowledge. These souls are psychologically balanced and emotionally neutral. They will create subtle happiness accompanied by a minimum of negative reactions (still negative, because their personal aim is to perform materially 'good' activities. Good means socially sophisticated, moral or ethical).
So all three modes support materialistic aims, either 'bad', 'highly fruitive, or 'good'. Therefore, the results of these actions are called 'karmic' and are subject to negative or positive material reactions. Even if a person performs so-called unselfish charity, it will create material results, such as promotion to the heavenly planets, which is a subtle material boon. Why? Even anonimous acts of charity create a sense of personal satisfaction to the well-wisher. Such acts are not completely unselfish or karma free. The mystic yogi, too, performs impure transcendental activities and is subject to karma. Why? His aim is to obtain personal yogic powers, material perfections, and often competes with the Lord. His desires are selfish and therefore karmic; they do not please the Lord personally - far from that.
Karma is restricted to activities performed in the material universes, where any action will either fructify in this life or in the next. This is the reason why karma binds one to the material universe. Material nature will force one to take successive births, perpetually, in order to enjoy one's righteous balance of good and bad karmas. Is there a way out of this karmic universe and painful repeated incarnations?
Yes. In the first place, we are all doomed to act as long as we are inhabitants of one of the material universes. However, there is a way to act without creating karma. By this clever means, and by the mercy of Bhagavan, we will be able to escape the rigid laws of material nature. One surpasses the grip of Mother Nature, or Maya-devi, by surrendering to the Supreme Transcendental Lord, Bhagavan Sri Krsna. Krsna is the Supreme Master of Maya-devi. She is one of His devotees controlling the mode of ignorance in the same way Siva does, who is her consort and husband.
Exclusive surrender to the Supreme Absolute Truth, Sri Krsna, is free of selfishness, or material and subtle material desires. In that state of consciousness, there is simply one desire, "To please the Lord as He likes it". In this qualified consciousness, there is no longer any material desire, not even to attain liberation (moksa), or promotion to the heavenly planets (Svarga-loka). Moksa is a material illusion, it doesn't really exist; and residence on the heavenly planets is an extended, however temporary event: as soon as one's good merits have been exhausted one will return to planet Earth to try once more.
The above knowledge is not my own. It has been given by the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna, in His Bhagavad-Gita. At the end of His teaching to Arjuna He said,
"Completely abandoning all bodily and mental dharma, such as varna and asrama, fully surrender to Me alone. I shall liberate you from all reactions to your sins. Do not grieve" (Bg. 18.66, commentaries by Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja).
What is, in Kali-yuga, the best, the fastest, and easiest way to surrender to Sri Krsna? By chanting His holy names: "Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare". Chant this mantra in any circumstance, and your life will be successful and never to return on "this planet of death and misery". Gradually, your soul will become eligible to enter the spiritual abodes of the Lord Himself beyond this universe: Vaikuntha or Goloka Vrindavan, which are full of transcendental knowledge, love, eternity and bliss.
Conclusion: Unselfish transcendental love of Bhagavan Sri Krsna is absolutely karma free. A free reading of Srimad Bhagavad-Gita is available on: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bhagavadgita-songofgod /