Prarabdha Karma will act in our lives and give us choices and opportunities for both good and bad karma. Depending on our God centred choice or sense gratification choice, new karma will be added.
However, due to our akarma credits from previous lifetimes, we will also be provided with the spiritual facility to find and enquire about our real purpose of human birth. Somebody might be having more akarma credit than others. That’s why some are pious by birth and some can’t help themselves from committing sinful activities.
Hence, if put roughly, 80% of our life is pre-destined and the rest 20% depends on actions we take (explained in next section). If we choose akarma, then we will be provided with all facilities to quickly dive to our true identity of satcidananda (eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss) state very soon.
If we choose karma or vikarama, the time to cross the cycle of birth and death will be a lot longer, and we will have to face the miseries of the material world (birth, death, old age and disease) again and again until we find our satcidananda state and our eternal constitutional position.
What actions to do in our present life?
As stated in Bhagavad Gita (2.14), happiness and distress are like the summer and winter seasons. It will come and go away. Good times and bad times will come and go. We should rather focus more on akarma or spiritual actions. Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita (9.32), "Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform – do that as an offering to Me.”
Whatever occupational duty Lord has given us, we should do it as a service to the Lord regardless of a good or bad situation.
We should see our family or responsibilities as a manifestation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna and serve them to the best of the abilities that the Lord has given us, and that too without getting attached to the results!
The book 'Demystifying The Mystical Vrindavan' is the essence and crux of this entire website.
If you are considering to dive into the final goal of our Vedic Scriptures and spiritual life, and if Radharani inspires you, do get a copy of the book .
Note that this thought of seeing all around us as a manifestation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead should be internal. Externally, we have to play our role without letting other’s know of our internal mood.
For example, if needed to scold, we will have to scold our child but internally we have to see them as manifestation of our Lord. This is inaction in action. We are doing our activity and duty, but as we are offering it to Krishna, it is no more karma but is counted in our akarma!
Akarma will help one reach the true destination of life, of loving devotional service and of identifying the true purpose of human birth.
Even good karma is binding as one has to take birth again to enjoy the good fruits. Then, there is a chance of creating new bad karma in new lives and that will further entangle us in the cycle of birth and death. Hence, only akarma is of interest to the sincere seekers. Everything else is binding and painful, including good and bad karmas!
When we do work in akarma (inaction in action), then we won’t be disturbed by happiness and distress. In akarma, we are doing it for Lord and acting as His servant. Then, no happiness or distress can affect us.
The true meaning of this karmic cycle manifests as one dives further spiritually. The tips and tricks as taught by Rasika Acharyas are mentioned in various articles on this site that will help sincere seekers transcend the laws of karma easily. Don’t worry if you aren’t able to relate much to this subject as of now. As one grows further spiritually, the meaning of it all sprouts from within. This article is just prerequisite for the basic and important foundation of this beautiful spiritual path.