Saturday, April 16, 2011

The Four Kinds of Karma

The Four Kinds of Karma

Our karma makes up both our fate and our free will because there are four kinds of karma – two that represent our fate and two that represent our free will. The two kinds of karma that represent our fate are:
1. Sanchita Karma – Our entire accumulated karma that represents all the actions we’ve performed in all our past our lifetimes.
2. Prarabdha Karma – Our current life karma. Our prarabdha karma is that portion of our entire sanchita karma that is allotted to us to experience in our current lives.
The two kinds of karma that represent our free will are:
3. Kriyamana Karma – This is our free will to take current actions to change our current life situation.
4. Agama Karma – This is our free will to make a plan or set an intention to take an action in the future.
To use our free will effectively we have to “plan our work” and “work our plan”. The former is our agama karma, while the latter is our kriyamana karma. Without kriyamana and agama karma our life would be entirely predestined at the moment of birth. We would, in effect, be automatons at the mercy of our past karma.

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