Mundaka Upanishad: ~ “These performers of karma do not know the Truth owing to their attachment, they all from heaven, misery-stricken, when the fruit of their work is exhausted.
Arguing with religious believers is fruitless. Belief in religious tradition, lineage or paramparas, and the scripture as if they were true or factual quite clearly is delusion, but the payoff for holding such delusions is, for those who hold them, extremely compelling ~ the avoidance of the "wrath of God," the hope of heaven or salvation, or the imagined "end of suffering."
Religious orthodox think that through their good karma and performing rituals they get moksthe ha. Religious moksha is based on birth entity whereas spiritual moksha based on the birthless Soul, the ‘Self’.
First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (9) - Children, immersed in ignorance in various ways, flatter themselves, saying: We have accomplished life's purpose. Because these performers of karma do not know the Truth owing to their attachment, they fall from heaven, misery-stricken, when the fruit of their work is exhausted.
First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (10) - Ignorant fools, regarding sacrifices and humanitarian works as the highest, do not know any higher good. Having enjoyed their reward on the heights of heaven, gained by good works, they enter again this world or a lower one.
Sage Sankara says: ~ From the point of any of these four uses karma is of no use for attaining liberation. Remaining in one's own true form is released. It consists of realizing the true nature of the Self which is ever-existent and eternal. Moksha, therefore, is not something to be produced, for it is eternal (nityatvat). It is not something to be purified, for it is bereft of all qualities and impurities (nirgunatvat, nirdoshatvat cha). There is also another reason here. It cannot be purified since it is not a means (asadhanadravyatmakatvat).
Sage Sankara says:~ Karma is not competent to remove ignorance, for it is not opposed to it. It does not matter in what way we characterize ignorance, whether as the absence of knowledge as doubt or as erroneous knowledge. It is always removable by knowledge, but not by action in any of its forms, for there is no contradiction between ignorance and karma. (Commentary on Brah.3-3-1 )
Taittiriya Vartika, verse-24:~ There is also another reason for rejecting this view. Karma involves duality in the form of means and end, doer, and deed. The perception of duality is ignorance. Further, it is only a person who has the desire to perform karma. Since he is ignorant of the non-dual Self, he thinks that there are objects other than the Self which he should strive for and that there are persons for whom he should suffer in his body. "He struggles to desire something for himself, something else for his son, the third thing for his wife and so on and gets involved in the cycle of births and deaths." (Brh. Up. Sankara's Commentary, 4-4-12)
In short, karma presupposes desire, involves duality, and is, therefore, a product of avidya. If so, how can it destroy avidya, the root cause of bondage, and thereby cause liberation?
Religious orthodox think that through their good karma and performing rituals they get moksha. Religious moksha is based on the birth entity whereas spiritual moksha is based on the birthless Soul, the innermost Self.
There are two kinds of audiences - the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of Karma, and the more advanced seeker who seeks to know the truth beyond the form, time, and space. The religious orthodoxy is meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. The Atmic path, with emphasis on the Advaitic wisdom, is meant for those who wish to go beyond form, time, and space.
Remember:~
The Karma Theory is the theory of ignorance and is meant for the ignorant populace.
Arguing with religious believers is fruitless. Belief in religious tradition, lineage or paramparas, and the scripture as if they were true or factual quite clearly is delusion, but the payoff for holding such delusions is, for those who hold them, extremely compelling ~ the avoidance of the "wrath of God," the hope of heaven or salvation, or the imagined "end of suffering."
Religious orthodox think that through their good karma and performing rituals they get moksthe ha. Religious moksha is based on birth entity whereas spiritual moksha based on the birthless Soul, the ‘Self’.
First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (9) - Children, immersed in ignorance in various ways, flatter themselves, saying: We have accomplished life's purpose. Because these performers of karma do not know the Truth owing to their attachment, they fall from heaven, misery-stricken, when the fruit of their work is exhausted.
First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (10) - Ignorant fools, regarding sacrifices and humanitarian works as the highest, do not know any higher good. Having enjoyed their reward on the heights of heaven, gained by good works, they enter again this world or a lower one.
Sage Sankara says: ~ From the point of any of these four uses karma is of no use for attaining liberation. Remaining in one's own true form is released. It consists of realizing the true nature of the Self which is ever-existent and eternal. Moksha, therefore, is not something to be produced, for it is eternal (nityatvat). It is not something to be purified, for it is bereft of all qualities and impurities (nirgunatvat, nirdoshatvat cha). There is also another reason here. It cannot be purified since it is not a means (asadhanadravyatmakatvat).
Sage Sankara says:~ Karma is not competent to remove ignorance, for it is not opposed to it. It does not matter in what way we characterize ignorance, whether as the absence of knowledge as doubt or as erroneous knowledge. It is always removable by knowledge, but not by action in any of its forms, for there is no contradiction between ignorance and karma. (Commentary on Brah.3-3-1 )
Taittiriya Vartika, verse-24:~ There is also another reason for rejecting this view. Karma involves duality in the form of means and end, doer, and deed. The perception of duality is ignorance. Further, it is only a person who has the desire to perform karma. Since he is ignorant of the non-dual Self, he thinks that there are objects other than the Self which he should strive for and that there are persons for whom he should suffer in his body. "He struggles to desire something for himself, something else for his son, the third thing for his wife and so on and gets involved in the cycle of births and deaths." (Brh. Up. Sankara's Commentary, 4-4-12)
In short, karma presupposes desire, involves duality, and is, therefore, a product of avidya. If so, how can it destroy avidya, the root cause of bondage, and thereby cause liberation?
Religious orthodox think that through their good karma and performing rituals they get moksha. Religious moksha is based on the birth entity whereas spiritual moksha is based on the birthless Soul, the innermost Self.
There are two kinds of audiences - the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of Karma, and the more advanced seeker who seeks to know the truth beyond the form, time, and space. The religious orthodoxy is meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. The Atmic path, with emphasis on the Advaitic wisdom, is meant for those who wish to go beyond form, time, and space.
Remember:~
The Karma Theory is the theory of ignorance and is meant for the ignorant populace.
The ‘Self’ is not you but the Self is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. The karma theory is based on the birth entity whereas the Soul is birthless and deathless because it is the ever-formless, timeless and spaceless existence. The Soul, the ‘Self’ is not limited to you because it pervades everything and everywhere in the world in which you exist.
The Karma theory is based on form, time, and space. Without the form, time, and space the doer, doing and the world cease to exist. From the standpoint of the Soul, form, time and space are an illusion. If the form, time, and space are an illusion the doer, doing and the world are bound to be an illusion. Thus, the karma theory is based on the illusory reality that is bound to falsehood.
The individual experiences within the practical world are a reality only within the waking experience but the waking experience itself is an illusion created out of consciousness. If the waking experience is an illusion then practical life within the practical world is bound to be an illusion.
The karma theory is not meant for those who have chosen the religious and yogic paths which are based on the birth entity whereas the Atmic path is pure spirituality based on the birthless Soul, the Self.
That is why Sage Goudpada says:~The merciful Veda teaches karma and Upasana to people of lower and middling intellect while Jnana is taught to those of higher intellect.
The Atmic path or the path independentependent path. The Soul has no karma, therefore; the karma theory is nothing to do with the Soul, which is birthless and deathless.
Thus, the experience of birth, life, death, and the world is a dualistic illusion. The Advaitic orthodoxy is stuck with the karma theory and rituals are stuck with the theory meant for the lower mindset think by glorifying their guru and conceptual god and indulging in all sorts non-Vedic (Puranic) rituals they get Moksha.
Religious orthodox think that through their good karma and performing rituals they get moksha.
According to Advaita Vedanta, the Veda addresses itself to two kinds of audiences -There are two kinds of audiences - the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices, and the most advanced seeker who seeks to know the truth beyond the form, time, and space. The religious orthodoxy is meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. The Atmic path, with emphasis on the Advaitic wisdom, is meant for those who wish to go beyond such transient pleasures.
That is why Sage Sankara: ~ VC- Let erudite scholars quote all the scripture, let Gods be invoked through sacrifices, let elaborate rituals be performed, let personal Gods be propitiated---yet, without the realization of one‘s identity with the Self, there shall be no liberation for the individual, not even in the lifetimes of a hundred Brahmas put together (verses-6)
Sage Sankara: ~ “Action (karma) cannot destroy ignorance, for it is not in conflict with or opposed to ignorance. Knowledge does verily destroy ignorance as light destroys deep darkness. (Atma Bodha)
Sage Sankara says in Aparoksh Anubhuti: ~ “88. When the whole universe, movable and immovable, is known to be Atman, and thus the existence of everything else is negated, where is then any room to say that the body is Atman?
89. O enlightened one; pass your time always contemplating on Atman while you are experiencing all the results of Prarabdha; for it ill becomes you to feel distressed.
90. The theory one hears from the scripture, that Prarabdha does not lose its hold upon one even after the origination of the knowledge of Atman, is now being refuted.
91. After the origination of the knowledge of Reality, Prarabdha verily ceases to exist, inasmuch as the body and the like become non-existent; just as a dream does not exist on waking.
92. That Karma which is done in a previous life is known as Prarabdha (which produces the present life). But such Karma cannot take the place of Prarabdha (for a man of knowledge), as he has no other birth (being free from ego).
93. Just as the body in a dream is superimposed (and, therefore, illusory), so is also this body. How could there be any birth of the superimposed (body), and in the absence of birth (of the body) where is the room for that (i.e., Prarabdha) at all?
94. The Vedanta texts declare ignorance to be verily the material (cause) of the phenomenal world just as the earth is of a jar. That (ignorance) being destroyed, where can the universe subsist?
95. Just as a person out of confusion perceives only the snake leaving aside the rope, so does an ignorant person see only the phenomenal world without knowing the reality?
96. The real nature of the rope being known, the appearance of the snake no longer persists; so the substratum being known, the phenomenal world disappears completely.
97. The body also being within the phenomenal world (and, therefore, unreal), how could Prarabdha exist? It is, therefore, for the understanding of the ignorant alone that the Shruti speaks of Prarabdha.
98. “And all the actions of a man perish when he realizes that (Atman) which is both the higher and the lower”. Here the clear use of the plural by the Shruti is to negate Prarabdha as well.
99. If the ignorant still arbitrarily maintain this, they will not only involve themselves in two absurdities but will also run the risk of forgoing the Vedantic conclusion. So one should accept those Shrutis alone from which proceeds true knowledge.
The above proves that karma is a reality only from the dualistic perspective. From the non-dualistic perspective, the Karma theory has no value.
The Advaitic orthodoxy is based on the birth entity so it accepts the karma theory as a reality. The karma theory is the theory of ignorance. If you accept the karma theory as a reality, you will never be able to come out of ignorance. And ignorance makes you believe the cycle of birth, life, and death as a reality.
Thus, the freedom which you are seeking will remain a distant dream. The one who accepts birth, karma, and death as reality is unfit to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. : ~Santthosh Kumaar
The Advaitic orthodoxy is based on the birth entity so it accepts the karma theory as a reality. The karma theory is the theory of ignorance. If you accept the karma theory as a reality, you will never be able to come out of ignorance. And ignorance makes you believe the cycle of birth, life, and death as a reality.
Thus, the freedom which you are seeking will remain a distant dream. The one who accepts birth, karma, and death as reality is unfit to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. : ~Santthosh Kumaar
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