Karma-pāratantryam — the pāratantrya (utter dependence, subservience) that arises from karma — describes the condition of the jīvātmā in saṃsāra who, having forgotten its true nature as the Lord's inseparable mode (śeṣa), acts as though it were an independent agent. This presumption of independence is the root error from which all bondage flows. Because the soul acts as if it were its own master, it accumulates karma — both puṇya (meritorious) and pāpa (demeritorious) — and is therefore compelled to undergo births, deaths, and all the experiences those karmas demand.
The theology of karma-pāratantryam is closely linked to the concept of svātantrya — imagined self-sufficiency — which Śrī Vaiṣṇava Āchāryas identify as the direct opposite of the soul's true nature. The soul is, by its very essence, para-tantra: entirely dependent upon Bhagavān, existing for His purposes, sustained by His will. When it forgets this and grasps at independence, it falls into the clutches of karma, and karma becomes its taskmaster. No amount of karma-yoga or jñāna-yoga performed under this illusion can fully dissolve this bondage, for such efforts are themselves still tainted by the assumption of independent agency.
Liberation from karma-pāratantryam comes solely through prapatti, the act by which the soul utterly renounces its imagined independence and consciously surrenders to Bhagavān as its only master. In that moment of complete surrender, the soul's identification with its accumulated karma is severed. Bhagavān, moved by His sovereign compassion, assumes direct responsibility for the prapanna's liberation, overriding the ordinarily inexorable mechanism of karma. This is the great promise at the heart of the carama śloka — Bhagavān's personal assurance in the Bhagavad Gītā that He will deliver the surrendered soul from all sin (sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi).