Four Kinds of Karma

Four kinds of karma are recognized in Hinduism:

< Sanchita karma : All the karma we've accrued from all our previous lives.

< Prarabdha karma : That portion of our total karmic backlog destined to play out in our present lifetime.

< Kriyanan karma : The fresh karma we're producing in this lifetime.

< Agama karma : Our plans for the future on which we have yet to act. The karma produced by our thoughts.

Sanchita karma is all the debits and credits in our soul's entire karmic portfolio. Parabdha karma is the debits and credits we have to deal with in this incarnation. Kriyaman karma is the store of merit and demerit we're adding to or subtracting from our karmic credit account right now.

Agama karma is more subtle. This is produced not by actions we've done but by our intentions to commit an action in the future. If we seriously want to hurt somebody, our Karmic account gets docked even if we don't actually do it.Though not as much as if we take action!

Most human souls have an immense amount of karma built up from many previous existences. Due to the constraints of time and space, only a small portion of it can manifest in any one lifetime.  In a previous life, we may intensely desired to live on Mars, for example. But in this life, only our karma to be a soft drink distributor may play out. The space colonizer karma will have to wait till another lifetime. That's the distinction between sanchita and Prarabdha karma.

Now, when we're not busy filling vending machines with cans of Pepsi and Sprite, we may spend all our free time studying about outer space and visiting Cape Canaveral to watch Space Shuttle launches. This karma we're creating now is adding to our total account. In a future life, we may be born as a child who desires to travel in space so intensely that she actually grows up to be an astronaut.