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Theory and Practice of Karma: Some

Salient Features

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Theory and Practice of Karma: Some Salient
Features
Article of the Month - May 2015

There are three divisions of Karma: Prarabdha, Sanchita and Agami.

Prarabdha: Everyone performs a lot of karma in the present and

previous lives. Only a certain fraction of this karma is chosen by God in
order to form the blueprint of our next birth. In this way, the karma
brought over from the previous births, which determines our present
birth, is known as prarabdha karma.

Sanchita: All the karma of our previous births which remains after
prarabdha has been taken out is known as sanchita karma.

Agami: This is karma that one accumulates during the present birth. At
the moment of death, this joins the sanchita karma and next birth is
determined by a fraction of karma taken out from this sum. The fruit that
one experiences in this birth is due to prarabdha and a portion of the
present agami. Though prarabdha is exhausted fully by the time of death,
only a fraction of Agami is used now, and the rest is added to sanchita at
death.

Question: This refers only to the karma of human beings. What about
the karma of animals?

Reply: There is no agami karma for animals. They have only prarabdha
and sanchita karma. The jiva born as an animal spends only his papa
karma, which caused him the animal life in the first place. In other words,
he experiences only his prarabdha karma. For example, a tiger does not
accrue papa by killing a cow. Similarly, a fish in the Ganga does not
accrue punya because of always living in Ganga. After spending this
karma, they go back as human beings; their future birth being again
determined by a fraction of the remaining sanchita karma.

An Important Question: Is it possible to change one’s karma or one

necessarily has to experience its fruit?

Answer: Karma can certainly be changed by another karma, which is its

antidote. A good karma can be annulled by a bad karma and a bad one by
a good one. Whenever prarabdha shows up through a pleasant result, it is
punya and and the one ending up in grief, is papa. The moment there is
grief, we would like to annul that papa. The karma required for this is
prayashchitta. It has mainly three components viz japa, dana and
upavasa. Prayashchitta differs only in the quality and quantity of these
three aspects. One may have to do more upavasa or less upavasa, do this
dana or that dana or do this japa or that japa and so on. Upavasa and
dana cannot be done by everybody. A diabetic patient or a person with
stomach ulcer cannot do upavasa. A poor man cannot do dana. But there
is no such constraint on japa. The rishis relax the rules of japa to facilitate
anybody to do it. If one cannot squat, one can sit on a chair and even if
that is not possible, one may lie down and do japa.Therefore, everyone,
for everything - either to get rid of papa or acquire punya, should resort
to japa.

Doubt: But many times, even after doing prayashchitta and punya
karma, one may not be rewarded. Sometimes we also hear that
prarabdha cannot be got rid of. It has to be spent through. Can you
explain this?

Resolution: Prarabdha is after all our own

karma done during previous lives. Of course,
we do not know how much or what exactly it
is. Nevertheless, it has to be experienced.
But it is possible to rectify it through
prayashchitta. For example, Markandeya,
who had to die at the age of 8 due to his
prarabdha, overcame it through tapasya and
lived long.

Savitri, whose prarabdha destined her for

widowhood, overcame it by tapasya.

But many times common people will not be able to do that kind of
tapasya necessary to overcome the prarabdha. Because we are ignorant
of the amount of prarabdha, its annulment is to be seen only after the
present tapasya overcomes it. The tapasya may be lacking in its quality or
quantity or both. Bhagawan Vyasa says that for the full result of the
karma to manifest, three things are necessary. They are: concentration of
mind, correctness in the performance of karma and dana. Sometimes,
when we do not succeed, it would be wrong to conclude that prarabdha
cannot be mitigated. We have to step up only the quality and quantity of
the tapasya.

Remaining Doubt: Then how to understand the statement that

prarabdha should unavoidably be experienced?

Answer: It is like this: The trouble that one undergoes during tapasya
will itself account for the grief to be experienced due to prarabdha.

Question: Then which is better - experiencing prarabdha as such without

any prayashchitta or experiencing it through the prayashchitta to
overcome the prarabdha?

Answer: It depends upon one’s attitude. People with vairagya who are
concentrating on moksha, experience the prarabdha and do not bother to
have prayashchitta. This amounts to undergoing pain voluntarily for a
higher cause. Therefore, this itself is tapasya. But common people should
not do like that. They have various duties to attend to. Therefore, they
should overcome it by doing the tapasya of prayashchitta. This will not
only mitigate grief but also increase faith in God.

This article is based almost entirely on the teachings of Pujya Swami

Paramanand Bharati Ji. However, any errors are entirely the author's
own.

References & Further Reading:

• Bharati, Swami Paramananda. Foundations of Dharma: Bangalore

2008

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