The Tatwa Bodha of Sri Adi Sankaracharya gives clarity on the nature of actions. The three types of actions—everything that we think, do and speak—fall under sanchitha (past), prarabdha (present) and agami (future).
In many places Swami Chinmayananda refers to this in his discourses on the Bhagavad Gita as the ‘Secret of Action’. Work without worries about the past, anxieties about the future and excitement in the present moment. The seeds of actions done in the past which are in consciousness keep springing now and then as unsolved problems or worries about events that happened. The expectations that have been springing continuously in our mind and those hopes that we wish to experience one day in the future are also stored in consciousness and keep bobbing up constantly in an inner ocean of memory as anxieties to experience objects, people and situations in the future.
In the Tatwa Bodha, the Acharya talks not of the actions done by the common man, but those performed by a realised master. For the one who has realised completely the nature of the self as the only existing truth in this universe, the master still keeps doing actions that generate energy within or may be in such a manner as to withdraw the store of energy from others.
For instance, if there is a big congregation of people gathered for meditation, it is nevertheless a peaceful experience for those who are meditating. However, for others who do not wish to meditate, being forced to be in a meditative environment can create turbulence and violent thoughts in the mind. In this earth, whatever actions we may do is never 100 per cent good or bad. The results will be faced in the future. For instance, if a realised master is planting a garden by sowing the seeds, watering, nurturing and nourishing the garden, the plants will grow and yield flowers, fruits and shade, not right away but in a future moment of time.
When the person realises the true nature of the self, when the results of action are fructifying and coming back—good or bad, there is no Swami to receive the results of the action. The renunciate is aways dead to the world and so the results of the actions done presently will go to his well-wishers and critics. To those who love and serve him, the results of all his good actions will go and to those who perform sin, the unfavourable results will go.
So the account of agami karma or action that bears the results of the future is completely dissolved for the one who realises his true self.