Q: What are the different types of karma?
Today let us contemplate different types of karma. There are 4 different types of karma. They are called Sanchita karma, Prarabdha karma, Agaami karma and Kriyamana karma. Let me explain this in a way.
Sanchita means accumulated. All the karma which you have accumulated has become a very big pool and that accumulated pool is called Sanchita Karma. To give an analogy or example: let us say there is a person who has a bank account. In the bank, there is a huge amount of money. Maybe hundreds and crores of rupees are there in the bank. This hundred and crores of rupees are what is called Sanchita karma. It is his lifetime’s earnings from all the business.
Similarly, all your lifetimes whatever you have done goes into an account called Sanchita karma. And there are some fixed deposits in that. Something which can mature. Let us say one fixed deposit of 5 lac is maturing. Out of hundreds of crores, a deposit of 5 lac is maturing. So, that maturing account you take and start a new business. So, that 5 lac rupees out of that hundreds of crores, is called Prarabdha karma.
So, that one small amount which has matured, that you take and start a new life. It is a starting and initial seed funding for the new life. That karma is called Prarabdha karma. Whatever you have to experience in life, good or bad, is a part of that 5 lac. That Prarabdha karma. So, now, if the businessman is good, 5 lac rupees he takes and every day he makes good business. Every day he earns 50000 rupees interest. And all the interest is deposited back in the bank.
Similarly, whatever Prarabdha karma you have taken using the body, you start doing more karma. All those karmic impacts are stored in the Sanchita karma, accumulative. It goes back into your account. So, that work which you are doing, using the body, Prarabdha karma which you have taken is called Kriyamana, what you are doing now.
Agaami means, karma which is yet to mature. Which is yet to come in the future. These are the 4 different types of karma. Sanchita karma, to give an example: Buddha used to say “I have born many, many lifetimes. If you pile up all the backbones of mine in many lifetimes, the backbones itself will become one mountain as big as Everest or the Himalayan mountain ranges. And I have gone through so much of suffering in those lifetimes, if you pool my tears it will be mightier than the Ganga river.”
So, each of us has a big history, not a small one. Lot of lifetimes you have gone through. So, what they say is 84 million yonis, which means 84 million life forms you have gone through. It is a long, long history. In each life form, multiple lifetimes. This doesn’t include your life form as stone and plants. That is another set. It is a long history.
So, what happens after enlightenment is that, during the enlightenment, you realize that you are not a body, mind or intellect. You realize that,
“Naanu nanembudu naanalla. Ee deha mana budhi naanalla, sachidananda Atma Shiva naanu naane, Shivoham, Shivoham, Shivoham”.
I am not the body, mind or intellect, that you realize. When you realize that, the karma which you have said, you have done doesn’t belong to you. So, overnight, the moment you realize, all the Sanchita karma will vanish. Get disappeared. Your agami karma will stop. But your Kriyamana karma, what you are doing now, will become purified. They all become Divine acts. Prarabdha karma will continue. It doesn’t stop. Prarabdha karma is like an arrow being shot. You cannot take back the shot arrow. It will continue. Like that Prarabdha karma will continue. This is how karma operates.
Pranams
References:
S K 14.4
SelfKnowledge Talks_T14_KARMA(4.Types of Karma)_11Apr2016