The West reduced karma to a vending machine: put in good, receive good. But karma has nothing to do with cosmic reward systems. The word means, simply, action.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna does not promise Arjuna that good karma will bring good results. He says something far harder: do your duty. Act without attachment to the fruit of your action. The action itself is the dharma. The result is not yours to claim.
This is not resignation. It is a radical form of presence. When you stop performing for outcomes, you begin to act freely.