Talk:Classification of Puruṣhakāra Karm: A Time Perspective:Prārabdha (‘set into motion’) Karm

By Vishal Agarwal

It is that part of the Saṃcita Karm which results in the present body. It is what we call our ‘fate’ in the present life. We have no control over it once it comes into effect. In fact, even spiritually enlightened saints have to suffer the results of ripened karm that have started taking effect. Within the doctrine of karm, this is presented as an explanation for why even virtuous people suffer, and why saints sometimes have difficult lives or die painful deaths.

There is a misconception that prārabdha relates only to the effects of karm-s performed in a previous life that were added to the stock of saṃcita karm. Even in the current life, individuals constantly perform karm-s that become a part of the saṃcita karm and may also fructify. All such karm that fructifies in the present life constitutes prārabdha. Therefore, in essence, prārabdha refers to all saṃcita karm, whether performed in this life or in past lives, that has ripened under appropriate conditions and begun to yield fruit.

In Pañcadaśī 7.152–165, Swami Vidyāraṇya (1296–1391 CE) classifies prārabdha into three categories. This classification explains how ordinary as well as spiritually enlightened people experience karm that has ripened and begun to yield its effects.

1. Icchā-Prārabdha: Even enlightened human beings know that actions have specific consequences. For example, we know that stealing can result in consequences such as arrest and imprisonment. Nevertheless, overcome by attachments and desires (‘icchā’), we perform good or bad actions, exercise our free will, and face the consequences. In the Mahābhārata, Yudhiṣṭhira knew that gambling was a harmful addiction. Yet, he indulged in it recklessly, due to which he lost his kingdom and caused himself and his family considerable suffering. In this example, the prārabdha resulted from actions performed in his present life itself, and they bore fruit in that same life. As another example, ṛṣi Viśvāmitra was overcome by lust and disrupted his meditation to father a child through an apsarā, a celestial nymph. In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, ṛṣi Saubhari interrupted his underwater meditation after observing two fish mating and decided to marry. An illustration of someone reaping fruit in the next life is a person who is intensely attached to violent acts and is therefore reborn as a violent creature, such as a tiger.
2. Anicchā-Prārabdha: The overpowering influence of vāsanā-s from the past can make one act in injudicious ways, even though one does not wish to (‘anicchā’), and thereby suffer the consequences. Conversely, a yogabhraṣṭa individual who had made great spiritual progress in previous lives, but had somehow become distracted by worldly attractions, will continue to be drawn towards spirituality in a future life because of the latent influence of those past efforts. For example, children born into criminal or otherwise adverse environments sometimes display unusually virtuous dispositions.
3. Parecchā-Prārabdha: Sometimes enlightened persons perform actions for the sake of others, even though these actions bring personal suffering. For example, a knowledgeable ṛṣi chooses to impart knowledge to students even though such altruistic efforts might draw derision from the society around him (‘What a fool he is to impart his knowledge to ungrateful people for free’). This category of prārabdha is found in an enlightened person who does good to others without any selfish motives. Their desires and corresponding actions do not result in any fruit, just as roasted grains resemble unroasted grains but do not germinate, whereas the latter do. The ‘desires’ of enlightened persons are therefore not really ‘desires’ in the ordinary sense of the word, but a spontaneous outpouring of their elevated nature that has become a channel for Divine Will.

It is often difficult to determine which category of prārabdha an enlightened sage is experiencing. However, Svāmī Vidyāraṇya points out that for the enlightened person, the suffering or rejoicing that manifests as prārabdha is ultimately unreal. This is because the sage has surrendered his entire being to the blissful Bhagavān and has mentally detached himself from the physical body. Therefore, the pure and enlightened ātmā of the sage does not experience suffering even though the body and mind may be in pain.

Examples often cited in this context include Svāmī Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa and Rāmāṇa Maharṣi, who in modern times experienced physically painful final days due to cancer and a tumour respectively. Nevertheless, they remained peaceful and cheerful, having understood that the material world, including the body, mind, and pain, is transitory and unreal, whereas their true nature, the ātmā, is Divine, eternal, and free from suffering.