UNUSUAL VARIATION

Most schools of Vedanta do not require the existence of an external being such as God for karma to operate. The same with Buddhism and Jainism.  These schools hold that just as a calf in a herd of cows can find its mother at suckling time, so also does karma find the specific individual it needs to attach to.

The Shaiva Siddhanta school of Vedanta, however, believes that karma, unlike the calf, is not a discriminating entity, hence cannot locate the appropriate person on its own.  They argue that an intelligent Supreme Being, with perfect wisdom and power, is necessary to make karma attach to the correct person.

Shankara of the Advaita Vedanta school echoed this when he said that the law of karma is an unintelligent and unconscious law.  Consequently, he said, there must be a conscious God who knows the merits and demerits which persons have earned by their actions, and who helps individuals reap their appropriate fruits.
  
God will then affect the person’s environment, even to its atoms, and for those souls who reincarnate, will produce the right rebirth body in order that the person will have experiences that are, for him, karmically suitable.