ancha karma:

five ayurvedic purification methods

(See also: ancha karma , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Aprarabdha-karma - the accumulated stock of reactions to activities which are lying in a dormant condition and waiting to bear fruit at some time.

(See also: Aprarabdha-karma , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

prarabdha karma: (Sanskrit) "Action that has been unleashed or aroused."

See: karma.

(See also: Prarabdha karma , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Sat-karma - pious deeds recommended in the karma-kansa section of the Vedas.

(See also: Sat-karma , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Law of Karma: Hindu view that the good and bad consequences of one's actions affect one's status in future lives (samsara)

 (See also: Law of Karma , Eastern Philosophy, Body Mind and Soul)

dhush-karma:

dhush-karma. Bad actions.

(See also: dhush-karma , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

nithya-karma:

nithya-karma. Necessary duty.

(See also: nithya-karma , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

kamya-karma:

kamya-karma (kaamya-karma). Acts done to gain the fruits thereof.

(See also: kamya-karma , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

prarabdha-karma:

prarabdha-karma (praarabdha-karma). Karma from previous births that determines the present life.

(See also: prarabdha-karma , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

dharma-karma:

dharma-karma. Act of duty, virtuous action.

(See also: dharma-karma , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Nitya-karma - daily obligatory religious duties.

(See also: Nitya-karma , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

jatha-karma:

jatha-karma (jaatha-karma). Rite of first cleansing of a newborn infant.

(See also: jatha-karma , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Karma :

Karma

(Karman, Sanskrit) This is a noun-form coming from the root kri meaning "to do," "to make." Literally karma means "doing," "making," action. But when used in a philosophical sense, it has a technical meaning, and this technical meaning can best be translated into English by the word consequence.

The idea is this: When an entity acts, he acts from within; he acts through an expenditure in greater or less degree of his own native energy. This expenditure of energy, this outflowing of energy, as it impacts upon the surrounding milieu, the nature around us, brings forth from the latter perhaps an instantaneous or perhaps a delayed reaction or rebound. Nature, in other words, reacts against the impact; and the combination of these two  - of energy acting upon nature and nature reacting against the impact of that energy  - is what is called karma, being a combination of the two factors.

Karma is, in other words, essentially a chain of causation, stretching back into the infinity of the past and therefore necessarily destined to stretch into the infinity of the future. It is unescapable, because it is in universal nature, which is infinite and therefore everywhere and timeless; and sooner or later the reaction will inevitably be felt by the entity which aroused it.

It is a very old doctrine, known to all religions and philosophies, and since the renascence of scientific study in the Occident has become one of the fundamental postulates of modern coordinated knowledge. If you toss a pebble into a pool, it causes ripples in the water, and these ripples spread and finally impact upon the bank surrounding the pool; and, so modern science tells us, the ripples are translated into vibrations, which are carried outward into infinity. But at every step of this natural process there is a corresponding reaction from every one and from all of the myriads of atomic particles affected by the spreading energy.

Karma is in no sense of the word fatalism on the one hand, nor what is popularly known as chance, on the other hand. It is essentially a doctrine of free will, for naturally the entity which initiates a movement or action  - spiritual, mental, psychological, physical, or other  - is responsible thereafter in the shape of consequences and effects that flow therefrom, and sooner or later recoil upon the actor or prime mover.

Since everything is interlocked and interlinked and interblended with everything else, and no thing and no being can live unto itself alone, other entities are of necessity, in smaller or larger degree, affected by the causes or motions initiated by any individual entity; but such effects or consequences on entities, other than the prime mover, are only indirectly a morally compelling power, in the true sense of the word moral.

An example of this is seen in what the theosophist means when he speaks of family karma as contrasted with one's own individual karma; or national karma, the series of consequences pertaining to the nation of which he is an individual; or again, the racial karma pertaining to the race of which the individual is an integral member. Karma cannot be said either to punish or to reward in the ordinary meaning of these terms. Its action is unerringly just, for being a part of nature's own operations, all karmic action ultimately can be traced back to the kosmic heart of harmony which is the same thing as saying pure consciousness-spirit.

The doctrine is extremely comforting to human minds, inasmuch as man may carve his own destiny and indeed must do so. He can form it  or deform it, shape it or misshape it, as he wills; and by acting with nature's own great and underlying energies, he puts himself in unison or harmony therewith and therefore becomes a co-worker with nature as the gods are.

See also: Karma , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Sanskrit dictionary. From Advaita to Yoga.

Please note that all words in grey, like "enlightenment" or "kundalini" are hyperlinked to archives further explaining the term. At the corresponding archive you will also find articles related to the term.

Avaidha-karma - actions which defy the regulations of sastra.

(See also: Avaidha-karma , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Viswa-karma:

Viswa-karma (Vishva-karma). Architect of the Gods.

(See also: Viswa-karma , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

mama-karma:

mama-karma. My karma.

(See also: mama-karma , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

naishkaramya karma:

naishkaramya karma - actionless action

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Nishkama Karma - Disinterested work.

(See also: Nishkama Karma ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

 Karma-yoga:

unselfish actions

(See also:  Karma-yoga , Body Mind and Soul)

A dictionary Of Commonly Used Sanskrit terms. From Lac to Omkarasana.

Please note that all words in grey, like "yoga", "enlightenment" or "kundalini" are hyperlinked to archives further explaining the term. At the corresponding archive you will also find articles related to the term.

karma: (Sanskrit) "Action, deed."

One of the most important principles in Hindu thought, karma refers to

á      any act or deed;

á      the principle of cause and effect;

á      a consequence or "fruit of action" (karmaphala) or "after effect" (uttaraphala), which sooner or later returns upon the doer. What we sow, we shall reap in this or future lives. Selfish, hateful acts (papakarma or kukarma) will bring suffering. Benevolent actions (punyakarma or sukarma) will bring loving reactions.

Karma is a neutral, self-perpetuating law of the inner cosmos, much as gravity is an impersonal law of the outer cosmos. In fact, it has been said that gravity is a small, external expression of the greater law of karma. The impelling, unseen power of one's past actions is called adrishta.

The law of karma acts impersonally, yet we may meaningfully interpret its results as either positive (punya) or negative (papa)- terms describing actions leading the soul either toward or away from the spiritual goal. Karma is further graded as: white (shukla), black (krishna), mixed (shukla-krishna) or neither white nor black (ashukla-akrishna). The latter term describes the karma of the jnani, who, as Rishi Patanjali says, is established in kaivalya, freedom from prakriti through realization of the Self. Similarly, one's karma must be in a condition of ashukla-akrishna, quiescent balance, in order for liberation to be attained. This equivalence of karma is called karmasamya, and is a factor that brings malaparipaka, or maturity of anava mala. It is this state of resolution in preparation for samadhi at death that all Hindus seek through making amends and settling differences.

Karma is threefold: sanchita, prarabdha and kriyamana.

-       sanchita karma: "Accumulated actions." The sum of all karmas of this life and past lives.

-       prarabdha karma: "Actions begun; set in motion." That portion of sanchita karma that is bearing fruit and shaping the events and conditions of the current life, including the nature of one's bodies, personal tendencies and associations.

-       - kriyamana karma: "Being made." The karma being created and added to sanchita in this life by one's thoughts, words and actions, or in the inner worlds between lives. Kriyamana karma is also called agami, "coming, arriving," and vartamana, "living, set in motion." While some kriyamana karmas bear fruit in the current life, others are stored for future births.

-        

Each of these types can be divided into two categories: arabdha (literally, "begun, undertaken;" karma that is "sprouting"), and anarabdha ("not commenced; dormant"), or "seed karma."

In a famed analogy, karma is compared to rice in its various stages. Sanchita karma, the residue of one's total accumulated actions, is likened to rice that has been harvested and stored in a granary. From the stored rice, a small portion has been removed, husked and readied for cooking and eating. This is prarabdha karma, past actions that are shaping the events of the present. Meanwhile, new rice, mainly from the most recent harvest of prarabdha karma, is being planted in the field that will yield a future crop and be added to the store of rice. This is kriyamana karma, the consequences of current actions. In Saivism, karma is one of three principal bonds of the soul, along with anava and maya. Karma is the driving force that brings the soul back again and again into human birth in the evolutionary cycle of transmigration called samsara. When all earthly karmas are resolved and the Self has been realized, the soul is liberated from rebirth. This is the goal of all Hindus.

For each of the three kinds of karma there is a different method of resolution. Nonattachment to the fruits of action, along with daily rites of worship and strict adherence to the codes of dharma, stops the accumulation of kriyamana. Prarabdha karma is resolved only through being experienced and lived through. Sanchita karma, normally inaccessible, is burned away only through the grace and diksha of the satguru, who prescribes sadhana and tapas for the benefit of the shishya. Through the sustained kundalini heat of this extreme penance, the seeds of unsprouted karmas are fried, and therefore will never sprout in this or future lives.

See: diksha, grace.

Like the four-fold edict of dharma, the three-fold edict of karma has both individual and impersonal dimensions. Personal karma is thus influenced by broader contexts, sometimes known as family karma, community karma, national karma, global karma and universal karma.

See: karma, anava, fate, maya, moksha, papa, pasha, punya, sin, soul, karma yoga.

karmasamya: (Sanskrit) "Balance or equipoise of karma."

See: karma.

karmashaya: (Sanskrit) "Holder of karma." Describes the body of the soul,

(See also: Karma , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)