You have to understand Karma Siddhanta, or the theory of karma, correctly. It is simplistic to assume that your entire present life is determined solely by your actions in a previous one. Three kinds of karma are identifiable—Agami, Sanchita and Prarabdha. Agami is what one acquires in the present birth as a result of current actions. Sanchita represents the accumulated results of actions performed across previous births. Prarabdha refers to the portion of past karma that has begun to bear fruit in the present life—it manifests as one’s physical form, heredity, and life circumstances.
Life at any given moment is an interplay of all three karmas.How they interact and influence each other remains a profound mystery—just as Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita: “Gahana karmano gatih” (the path of karma is indeed unfathomable).
For instance, gender or congenital conditions such as childhood diabetes are expressions of Prarabdha. It may also extend to material inheritance. Let us turn to an example from the field of medicine. Doctors agree that diabetes is largely genetic—that is, if you have close blood relatives with diabetes, your chances of developing the condition are higher than normal. Suppose you come from a lineage prone to diabetes; does that mean you are bound to develop it in the future? Under such circumstances, is it sensible to indulge in sweets and throw all caution to the wind? No.
On the contrary, you can delay the onset of the disease, or even prevent it altogether, by following a rigorous regimen of diet, exercise, and preventive medication. At the very least, a full-blooded effort in that direction is the intelligent choice. Conscious effort can offset the effects of inherited genes. So, there is definitely the factor of karma, but there is also a prayatna—the effort factor. Real life presents an interplay between the two.
I am well aware of the general tendency to play down the theory of karma. Yet, respecting the profundity of how karma operates, it must be understood that the theory of karma is not synonymous with destiny. Rather, it accords a place of honour to conscious human effort in the fulfilment of an individual’s life potential.
Imagine a river, a motor boat, and a boatman. Take the river to be your Prarabdha. The boat represents your body, which is borne by your genetic inheritance. The boatman who steers the boat is your Jeevatma, the individual self. The motor is your Purushartha—the motive force, the prime energy pump that propels the boat forward. If the motor is not powered on—that is, if you do not provide the momentum—the boat, called your body, will travel at a speed roughly determined by the river.
With the motor switched on, the strength of your will and effort enables you to drive the boat even against the current, meaning you can overcome whatever disadvantages you may have inherited. But can a boat be absolutely independent of the river? Likewise, nobody can fully negate the impact of heredity. Yet, depending upon the degree and quality of your conscious effort, you can reduce the scale of that impact.
Participation in activities aimed at self-improvement is one way of powering the motor—of increasing your effort to lessen the influence of what you have inherited from previous births.You can absolve yourself of all your Sanchita karma, even though it has been accumulated out of ignorance over many births. It is like a cave shrouded in darkness since the beginning of time.
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