What are the different types of Karma Yoga?
If you’re learning about Karma Yoga from Bhagavad Gita lately, you must first know about its different types for sure. In this regard, this blog will help you understand different types of Karma Yoga with ease. Karma Yoga is the act of doing one’s duty without any form of expectation in return. Karma or action is of 3 forms.
Types of Karma Yoga
1. Sanchita Karma
Sanchita or accumulated Karma is the total Karma of the individual gathered in his past lives. It is not just limited to good Karma but includes our bad Karma or negative actions as well. Our Sanchita Karma plays an important role in shaping our present life as well as our future lives. Good actions enable us to earn good Karma giving us peace in all our lives, while bad actions generate bad Karma leading to suffering in our lives.
As it is possible to reap the fruits of our past Karma in this birth, it is also possible to balance our negative Karma of previous births. That can be done by selflessly serving people at all times, irrespective of how much Karma we have accumulated or how far we have come. Prayers, Satsang, and selfless service is done with an open heart can neutralize all our bad actions or negative Sanchita Karma.
Not just service, we have to open our hearts and fill it with love, understanding, and kindness for everyone irrespective of their color, caste, or religion. By doing so, we prove to the universal one that we are capable of his love, and this opens the path of self-realization to us. Union with the higher self by treating people equally clears our Sanchita Karma and fills our current life with peace and satisfaction.
2. Prarabdha Karma
Prarabdha Karma is the collection of the past karma response for the present life. Prarabdha’s meaning is that part of our Sanchita Karma plays an important role in influencing our current life. It is the fruit ripe for reaping and has to be experienced to exhaust its effects. Like you cannot go back to the past and change how you acted or reacted, you cannot change your Prarabdha Karma by going back to the past and having to bear its effects.
Prarabdha Karma is again of 3 types- A. Iccha or the Karma that we acquire with our consent or desire, B. Aniccha or the Karma that we acquire without our desire, and C. Pareccha or the Karma that we acquire due to other people’s desire. Only a Jeevan Mukta person or a person who has attained great depths of knowledge will realize that there is no Iccha but Pareccha and Aniccha that he has to undergo.
This Prarabdha Karma creates certain circumstances that we are destined to experience along with certain limitations in our path of life that learned people term as Bhagya or Destiny. No one apart from the Universal Creator has the power to liberate us from our Prarabdha Karma. We have to wholeheartedly surrender ourselves to him as well as have complete faith in his will and love for his contemplations to be one with him and be free of our sins. In short, Prarabdha Karma is just a fraction of the Sanchita Karma, the consequence of which has to be faced in one particular birth.
3. Agami Karma
Agami Karma, also called Kriyamana Karma, is our future Karma derived from our current actions. It is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Agaam,’ meaning impending future. Agami Karma is the fruit of our current karmas and actions, including good and bad, which will be reflected in our future circumstances. The actions that we take, the thoughts that we process, the choices that we make, everything is included in Agami karma, the fruits of which we will taste in our next lives. Every examination that life takes of us today, the results will be saved as Agami Karma for use in another life.
Sanchita, Prarabdha, and Agami are explained in Vedic Literature by a very interesting example of comparing Karma with Archery. Let us imagine the human soul as an archer holding a bow and an arrow ready to aim. Agami Karma is the arrow in the bow ready to be launched. Prarabdha is the arrow that has already been shot and cannot be taken back. Sanchita Karma is the bundle of arrows in the quiver on his back. The quality of your decision is the level of your archery ability. Where we aim our arrows is the consequence that will affect our fate in a good or bad way.
What happened in the past is not under our control. But by filling our lives with good thoughts and energies, we make way for good Agami Karma, which will result in a positive Sanchita and Prarabdha Karma. Self-realization and meditation is the only way to achieve this. Only a positive mind can breed positive thoughts and fill each life with kindness, compassion for others and lead the soul on the road to Enlightenment.
Now that you have learned about the different stages of karma yoga, it will be easy for you to align your work to be one with the supreme lord through your actions. However, you may still get doubts from time to time. In this regard, it is better to learn the essence of Bhagavad Gita under a master to clear your doubts with ease.
End Thoughts
If you want to learn more about such principles of Karma Yoga in Bhagavad Gita, join the online class of Srila H.D. Goswami, where he teaches self-realization in yoga with a complete study of Bhagavad Gita. You will learn how to become a Karma Yogi and get free from painful behaviors and mental patterns.
