("ongoing [ritual] activity") The three categories
of ritual activity are naimittika karma, kamya karma, and naimittika karma.
Nitya karma is a kind of ritual activity that is mandated at
regular set intervals, frequently on a daily basis; doing them does not provide
religious merit, but failing to do so is considered a religious sin.
The Gayatri Mantra, for example, is a nitya karma that every
"twice-born" man who has undergone the teenage religious initiation
known as the "second birth" must say at morning and evening devotion
(sandhya).
The Five Great Sacrifices (panchama hayajna), which are
daily religious requirements for a "twice-born" householder and are
seldom done nowadays, are another nitya karma.
