Tattva Bodha

Hari Aum

Prostrations to Guru. Prostrations to all.

karmaani kathiviDhaani santheethi cheth aagaami sanchitha praarabDhaBhedhena thriviDhaani santhi
jnaanothpathyanantharam jnaanidehakrutham punyapaaparoopam karma yadhasthi thath aagaameethyaBhiDheeyathe

If it is asked: How many kinds of Karma are there?: (the reply is) there are three kinds of karma namely: Agami, Sanchita and Prarabdha. The result of actions good or bad performed through the body of the jnaani after the dawn of knowledge is known as Agami

sanchitham karma kim?
ananthakotijanmanaam bheejaBhootham sat yathkarmajaatham poorvaarjitham thishTathi thath sanchitham jneyam

What is Sanchita karma?
The result of actions performed in (all) the previous births which are in the seed forms to give rise to endless crores of births (in future) is called Sanchita Karma


praarabDham karma kimithi cheth
idham shareeramuthpaadhya iha loke evam suKhadhuKhaadhipradham yathkarma thathpraarabDham
Bhogena nastham Bhavathi praarabdhakarmanaam Bhogaadheva kshaya ithi

If it is questioned, "What is Prarabdha Karma?" then:
Having given birth to this body, the action which give results in this very world, in the form of happiness or misery, and which can be destroyed only by enjoying or suffering them, is called prarabdha karma.

Jivan Muktha is one who has the firm conviction that "I am Brahman" just like we have firm conviction as "I am human". Once the seeker gets such a firm conviction that Brahman alone exists everything else are only Mithya or illusion in the Reality. Thus when a seeker gets the immediate knowledge that there is nothing apart from Brahman no karmas affect him and hence becomes free from the ocean of Samsaara as well. Karma is of three kinds, Sachitha Karma, Prarabdha Karma and Agaamya Karma. Jiva, because of ignorance of ones own nature of Brahman, does actions so that because of that action he will get happiness. Thus the jiva does action with the sense of doership and hence enjoys the punya or papa phalam that come out of the action he performs. Certain results will be immediate, certain results may take sometime to give result, the result may be that the Jiva has to take different births to enjoy the results of the action. Thus Jiva have been taking crores of birth in doing and enjoying actions and thus accumulates more and more karma phalas. Jiva while enjoying the karma in his current birth, adds on more by performing actions in this birth to satisfy his desires. In this way the karmas get accumulated more and more.

The Karma which is accumulated over the past crores of lives is called Sanchitha Karma. From the Sanchitha Karma, a small tiny portion is enjoyed as prarabdha karma in the current birth. Whatever karma the jiva does in the birth will be stored for the future births which is called agamya karma. Prarabdha karma determines the form of the body and other factors of the current birth. Papas and Punyas that are done in the previous births determine the what kind of form the jiva will take. When there is pure punya karma, jiva goes to higher lokas like swarga, when there is pure papa karma, jiva goes to lower lokas called Naraka. When there is mixture of punya and papa, and if punya is predominant, the jiva takes the human form, if papa is predominant the jiva takes the animal form. That is why Shankara during his explanation on Sthoola shareeram and Sukshama Shareeram, he mentioned Satkarmajanyam (born out of good karmas).

In higher lokas or lower lokas, no karmas will be added, these lokas are only to enjoy the already accumulated karmas. Thus when jiva goes to Swarga, he will return back when the punya karmas get exhausted. All these karmas will affect the Jiva only as long as there is a notion of doership. When the jiva realizes his own nature of Brahman, then he realizes that he is neither doer nor enjoyer and thus all karmas become nullified. Also it is only in the human form the jiva can realize his own nature of Self. We do not know what will be our next birth and hence it is important that we realize our own nature of Self in this birth itself without any delay so that we go beyond the Samsaaram of Birth and Death.

Shankara then explains about how to get freedom from the karmas. He also quotes from Srutti for the same, we will learn that the next day.

Prostrations to All

Hari Aum

Thanks,
Rajesh