Like most of us, I have grown up listening to the word Karma. "Karma!" is often uttered in frustration when things go bad or results disappoint. When someone who is not so likeable faces challenges, we say, "See, it's his Karma! Serves him right for what he did before, yes!" When someone hits a pot of luck, we say, "Good Karma!"
What's this Karma, then?
In the Gita, Bhagavan says,
यज्ञार्थात्कर्मणोऽन्यत्र लोकोऽयं कर्मबन्धनः । तदर्थं कर्म कौन्तेय मुक्तसङ्गः समाचर ॥ ३-९॥
"Except the actions performed as a worship (Yajna) expecting no rewards, all actions = Karma, produce consequences that bind one to this existence through many births. Hence, you should perform your actions without attaching yourself to the rewards thereof, i.e. make your work pure worship."
" What is Karma (action that produces consequences for the doer) and Akarma (what does not produce consequences for the doer) is something that confuses even the wise ones. Let me explain Karma and Akarma, knowing which you can free yourself from bad consequences!"
In other words, Akarma is all those actions done without expecting any rewards. Later on, Bhagavan says that a point is reached through constant practice and devotion when one becomes a mere witness of one's actions performed by the Body-Mind complex, with no attachment to either the action or its rewards. At that point, all actions are Akarma, not Karma.
So, Karma is the sum total of all actions we perform with a sense of doership. In the context of all those actions, we expect and reap rewards. So the word Karma is used in general parlance as the "burden of results of our actions that we carry from the past, birth after birth."
We now see that Karma begins as action, but the same word Karma also represents all the burdens of consequences (rewards and punishments) we carry with us!
Further on, the wise ones have said that for Karma or the burden of consequences to be acquired, actual action is not important. Mere intention is enough! So if I harbour a thought that I should usurp someone's wealth or property, or harm someone physically, the physical action is not even necessary. The very thought in my mind creates Karma or consequence!
When we reach the Sum Total of Consciousness or the Ultimate State of Oneness with the Creator, we become pure consciousness, with no mind or body. This is beyond Time-Space, and is a state of pure bliss and oneness without a second. When there is no Time-Space, nor Mind-Body, there is no burden, no consequence either. This is freedom. Until then, we are trapped in the Mind-Body/Time-Space/Action-Consequence paradigm or the Karma cycle.
Now, there are three types of Karma!
- Sanchita Karma सञ्चितकर्म
- Prarabdha Karma प्रारब्धकर्म
- Aagaami Karma आगामिकर्म
This is the whole bag of consequences that our bound soul, which is caught in the Body-Mind complex within Time-Space is carrying, birth after birth. This is our inheritance from the beginning of our soul journey in creation. All actions have consequences, but they first are deposited in the Bank Deposit called Sanchita Karma. There are good actions and bad actions, which means actions that earn positive experiences as rewards and actions that earn negative experiences as rewards. These rewards are experienced in this world, or in astral worlds between births in regions we call heaven and hell. The bound soul experiences them with or without a material body, because the mind and sensory experiences transcend the body. So one can suffer the raging fires of hell even without a physical body, or the pleasures of heaven with neighet tongue nor skin. Some conequential rewards are immediate, like a murderer's being punished with imprisonment and death penalty. Some rewards come many births later even - the story of why Dhritarashtra was born blind is quoted in this context. Each of those rewards experienced is a withdrawal from our F.D. called Sanchita Karma. Who decides what plays out when? It is Paramatma or Ishwara or God if you like, because He is called Karmaadhyaksha कर्माध्यक्षः.
Prarabdha Karma प्रारब्धकर्म
This brings us to the rewards and punishments of our past actions that we experience in our present birth cycle. This is called Prarabdha Karma which literally means what we have started experiencing in this life. This is a small portion of withdrawal from our Sanchita Karma. Prarabdha determines where we are born, our parents, our life's circumstances, and our body conditions, our mental faculties, our friends, our acquaintances, what we do and what we study and so on. This is a bit like our moving into a fully furnished house with a cook and servant in tow. We CANNOT CHANGE THIS. By the grace of a Guru, by prayer, by our spiritual seeking, we can mitigate the consequences of Prarabdha, i.e. lighten our suffering. But it will not go away. This explains why even perfectly noble people, even saints, suffer in front of our eyes, physically, emotionally, economically, and so on. Lakshmana says in the Ramayana that Sri Rama's being sent away to suffer in the forest is owing to his Prarabdha Karma!
We now come to our choices and actions in this life, which are apparently driven by our Free Will. Free Will will make me decide what I want to do with my life, e.g., acquire a certain type of education, go and live abroad, marry, raise children, pursue a life of pleasure, or a life of social service, or live a devotional and saintly life. No doubt, these choices are based on my personality traits and circumstances, driven by the actions/rewards governed by Ishwara or Karmadykasha. My choices may change over time too, as I live out this life. But I do have my own volition in this. Only human beings have Free Will, not animals or inanimate objects.
It is a bit like how I would like to arrange my furniture in my rented house. Or, what I ask the cook to prepare. This Free Will is a part of the master plan of creation no doubt, but human beings have been given the experience of Free Will by the Creator to enable choices and therefore acquire NEW KARMA. This new Karma is called Aagaami Karma. When saints and Gurus warn us to observe Shama, Dama, Yama, Niyama, Pratyahara and so on, they are telling us NOT to acquire new Karma, good or bad! Not to add new Karma through Aagaami Karma which will directly go into our F.D. called Sanchita Karma! Indeed Sachita Karma is nothing but the sum total of all Aagaami Karma, birth after birth.
To summarise, we are experiencing only a small portion (Prarabdha) of our accumulated burden of rewards/consequences (Sanchita). We have only one choice here. If we convert all our actions into a prayer, with devotion and not seeking rewards, we do not accumulate new Karma (Aagaami). This will reduce the burden of our lives, birth after birth, and help to break the Karma cycle.
That is when we transcend Body-Mind and Time-Space. We become pure consciousness and merge into the Creator.
Postscript
I forgot to state this. Every Guru and spiritual master has said that he will wipe out our Sanchita Karma. This is the essence of even the "Charama Shloka" of the Bhagavadgita 18.66, where the Supreme Guru Bhagavan Krishna says, "I will remove all the accumulated negative effects, so grieve not." It is important to understand that, to become eligible for this cleansing of the Sanchita Karma, we have to unconditionally surrender to the Guru or Bhagavan. Read this in the Lingashtakam:
कुङ्कुमचन्दनलेपितलिङ्गं पङ्कजहारसुशोभितलिङ्गम् ।
सञ्चितपापविनाशनलिङ्गं तत् प्रणमामि सदाशिवलिङ्गम् ॥५॥
Meaning:
5.1: (I Salute that Eternal Shiva Lingam) Which is Anointed with Kumkuma (Saffron) and Chandana (Sandal Paste), which is Beautifully Decorated with Garlands of Lotuses,
5.2: And which Destroys the Accumulated Sins (of several lives). I Salute that Eternal Shiva Lingam.
॥ हरिं ॐ तत् सत् ॥
