As we have seen earlier, Prarabdha karma, selected from Sanchit Karma, decides what and how our life will be. 

But the question is, how Prarabdha karma is selected from Sanchit karma for a new life? 

Lord Yama, gives an answer to this question in Katha Upanishad:
योनिमन्ये प्रपद्यन्ते शरीरत्वाय देहिनः । स्थाणुमन्येऽनुसंयन्ति यथा कर्म यथा श्रुतं ।।(2.2.7)
The next life, is based on the karma one has accumulated (Sanchit), and the knowledge one has earned. 

This means, in addition to our accumulated Karma, our accumulated spiritual knowledge too, is a deciding factor in what life we will get next. 

Unfortunately, attaining spiritual knowledge is the most neglected thing in our society. We neither celebrate nor encourage it. But, we need to start paying attention to it. 

We know that life is unpredictable. While we all want to live for 100 years, we don’t know when our time in this body will be up. 

So, we must not wait for old age to start gaining knowledge. If there is any good time to start working on this, it is NOW… 

By the way, gaining knowledge doesn’t not means giving up our responsibilities in this life. As a householder, we all have to do things that are expected out of us. 

We need to take care of the household, need to work, earn money, fight with coworkers/bosses to get things done, take care of kids, etc, etc.. 

But while doing all that, we need aside some time, say 15-30mins a day (or at least over the weekend), to read/ hear something, which will help us build our spiritual knowledge. 

All the Best!