Prarabdha karma are the part ofsanchita karma, a collection of pastkarmas, which are ready to be experienced through the present body (incarnation).[1]
According toSwami Sivananda: "Prarabdha is that portion of the past karma which is responsible for the present body. That portion of thesanchita karma which influences human life in the present incarnation is called prarabdha. It is ripe for reaping. It can be avoided or changed by performing the right Karma to nullify the effects of Prarabdh Karmas. In normal way it is only exhausted by being experienced. You pay your past debts. Prarabdha karma is that which has begun and is actually bearing fruit. It is selected out of the mass of the sanchita karma."[2]
Each lifetime, a certain portion of thesanchita karma, most suited for spiritual evolution at the time, is chosen to be worked out during the course of the lifetime. Subsequently, this Prarabdha Karma creates circumstances that we are destined to experience in our present lifetime. They also place certain limitations via our physical family, body, or life circumstances into which we are born, as charted in ourbirth chart orhoroscope, collectively known as fate or destiny (determinism).[3]
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There are three kinds of Prarabdha karma:Ichha (personally desired),Anichha (without desire) andParechha (due to others' desire). For a self realized person, aJivan mukta, there is no Ichha-Prarabdha, but the other two, Anichha and Parechha, remain,[3] which even ajivan mukta has to undergo.[4]
'Prarabdha' (Devanagari: प्रारब्ध) is employed in theNada Bindu Upanishad verse 21 as follows in Devanagari for probity and as rendered in English by K. Narayanasvami Aiyar (1914):
According to many sages and philosophers, Prarabdha karma end only after we have but experienced their consequences.[7][8][9]
Ramana Maharshi presents another viewpoint when he says, "If the agent, upon whom the Karma depends, namely the ego, which has come into existence between the body and the Self, merges in its source and loses its form, how can the Karma, which depends upon it, survive? When there is no ‘I’ there is no Karma.",[3] a point well reiterated by sageVasistha in his classical workYoga Vasistha, wherein, whenLord Rama asks sageVasistha about the way to transcend the two binding effects of past karmas, namelyVasanas or the effect of impressions left on the mind by past actions and one's fate created by Prarabdha Karma, to which he replies, through with Divine grace (Kripa), one can go beyond the influences of past actions.[10]
TheBhakti Yoga theme within the Chapter seven of theBhagavad Gita also talks eloquently about the concept ofKripa, but its most important verse comes in the final eighteenth chapter, about Liberation, whereKrishna finally makes a sweeping statement toArjuna inVerse 18.66, "Setting aside all meritorious deeds (Dharma), justsurrender completely to My will (with firm faith and loving contemplation). I shall liberate you from all sins. Do not fear."[11]
While Madhvacharya does not explicitly state why Vishnu created the universe, a possible interpretation is that a universe enablesjivas to manifestprarabdha karma and create new karma. It also allows for suffering and bondage to either continue or end.[12]
