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() most commonly refers to a "completed action", technique or practice within a
yoga Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...
discipline meant to achieve a specific result.


Etymology

is a
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
term, derived from the Sanskrit root , meaning 'to do'. ' means 'action, deed, effort'. The word ''
karma Karma (, from , ; ) is an ancient Indian concept that refers to an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptively called ...
'' is also derived from the Sanskrit root ' () , meaning 'to do, make, perform, accomplish, cause, effect, prepare, undertake'.see:
kṛ, कृ
Monier Monier-Williams Sir Monier Monier-Williams (; né Williams; 12 November 1819 – 11 April 1899) was a British scholar who was the second Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, England. He studied, documented and taught Asian languages, especially ...

Monier Williams Sanskrit–English Dictionary (2008 revision)
pp. 300–301; * Carl Cappeller (1999), Monier-Williams: ''A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, Etymological and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European Languages'', Asian Educational Services,
''Karma'' is related to the verbal
Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...
root 'to make, form'. The root () is common in ancient Sanskrit literature, and it is relied upon to explain ideas in
Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' (, , from wikt:ऋच्, ऋच्, "praise" and wikt:वेद, वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany, collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canoni ...
, other
Vedas FIle:Atharva-Veda samhita page 471 illustration.png, upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the ''Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of relig ...
,
Upanishads The Upanishads (; , , ) are late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions" and the emergence of the central religious concepts of Hind ...
,
Puranas Puranas (Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature
(1995 Editio ...
, and the
Hindu epics Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent, traditionally called ''Kavya'' (or ''Kāvya''; Sanskrit: काव्य, IAST: ''kāvyá''). The ''Ramayana'' and the '' Mahabharata'', which were originally composed i ...
.See Rigveda 9.69.5, 10.159.4, 10.95.2, Svetâsvatara Upanishad 2.7.v.1, Mahabharata 1.5141, etc.


Practices

The ''
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali The ''Yoga Sutras of Patañjali'' (IAST: Patañjali yoga-sūtra) is a compilation "from a variety of sources" of Sanskrit sutras (aphorisms) on the practice of yoga – 195 sutras (according to Vyasa, Vyāsa and Krishnamacharya) and 196 sut ...
'' 2.1 defines three types of , namely ''tapas'' (ascetic devotion), ''svadhyaya'' (study of the self or the scriptures), and (devotion or surrender to higher consciousness). The yogic purifications or '' shatkarma''s are sometimes called the Shatkriyas ("the six actions").Shatkarmas – Cleansing Techniques
, in ''Yoga Magazine'', a publication of Bihar School of Yoga
The Kriya Yoga school, established by Yogananda, is centered on
pranayama Pranayama (Sanskrit: प्राणायाम, "Prāṇāyāma") is the yogic practice of focusing on breath. In classical yoga, the breath is associated with '' prana'', thus, pranayama is a means to elevate the ''prana-shakti'', or life en ...
techniques.


References

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