The Universe is one whole manifestation of Cause and Effect. All Nature is manifested and materialized forces of Action and Reaction. The Doctrine of Karma is based upon the natural law by which action produces reaction, the law of cause and effect. It holds that every action is the cause of every reaction as well as the effect of the action which is its producing cause. The doctrine of Reincarnation specifies the different physical forms in which groups of accumulated causes of reaction manifest themselves in Nature. The laws of Karma are the regulated blendings of the subtle forces of the finer principles of Nature which, operating from within, shape these outer physical forms. Karma begins with the creation of the Universe, and Creation begins with the loss of equilibrium of the three Cardinal Attributes while dwelling in a quiescent state in Absolute Love—Krishna. This inequilibrium develops the germ of the Past Universe, which the Attributes hold within them, and manifests itself as a New Universe—a new Creation. The word Karma is derived from the Sanscrit root Kri, to act. Karma means action. Action means the motion of the operating forces of Nature. The Karma of the past Creations, stored up as ideation within the even forces of the Attributes, works itself out in the form and phases of a new Creation. Every succeeding Creation therefore is the reactive result of all previous creations. This reaction of the accumulated action-potencies of the past creations produces the uniform dimensions and the principal features of the cycles, so that the history of every cycle, from the smallest to the largest, repeats itself in its chief points in naturally regulated succession. As in the great universe, so in its epitome, man. The microcosm is ruled by the same laws as the macrocosm, the laws of cause and effect, of action and reaction. Man is the conscious embodiment of the blended forces of his past actions, actions of previous conscious embodiments born of the forces of still more previous embodiments.