Sage Sankara says it is impossible to realize God in truth if you get stuck with the theory of Karma.+

Sage Sankara says it is impossible to realize God in truth if you get stuck with the theory of Karma.

According to Advaita Vedanta, the Veda addresses itself to two kinds of audiences - the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices, and the more advanced seeker who seeks to know Brahman.

Thus, the Purva mimam. sa, with its emphasis on the karma kanda of the Vedas, is meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. However, the Vedanta, with its emphasis on the jnana kanda, is meant for those who wish to go beyond such transient pleasures.

The rituals mentioned in the karmakanda of the Vedas are sought to be negated in the jnanakanda which is also part of the same scripture. While the karmakanda enjoins upon you the worship of various deities and lays down rules for the same, the jnanakanda constituted by the Upanishads ridicules the worshiper of deities as a dim-witted person no better than a beast.

This seems strange, the latter part of the Vedas contradicting the former part. The first part deals throughout with karma, while the second or concluding part is all about jnana. Owing to this difference, people have gone so far as to divide our scripture into two sections: the Vedas (that is the first part) to mean the karmakanda and the Upanishads (Vedanta) to mean the jnanakanda

Karma (Action) will not dispel ignorance itself. Karma itself is based on ignorance Only Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana will destroy ignorance.

The person who is based on the experience of birth, life, death and the world is trying to find the meaning of life. There is no meaning or purpose in life because life is merely happening within the dualistic illusion.

Thus, the Karma Theory based on the physical entity is based on birth, life, and death, which is part and parcel of the dualistic illusion

Karma theory is based on the birth entity. From the non-dualistic perspective, the Karma theory belongs to the dualistic illusion or Maya. The Soul, the Self has no Karma because it is unborn and eternal. The karma theory is based on form, time, and space whereas the Soul, the Self is a formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.

Karma is the Sanskrit word ’Karma’ means Action. Karma is a religious fable. Every mental, verbal, and physical action – that is, everything one thinks, does, or says –imprints a latent influence in one’s life. Karma is the accumulation of the causes one makes and its effects. As such, it is the force that influences one’s present and future, laying deep within one’s life. This karma becomes manifest by an external stimulus and produces a corresponding effect. According to this theory, one’s actions in the past have shaped our present and our actions in the present determine our future.

This karmic cause and effect operate over the past present and future and it is the karmic account of the past lifetimes that accounts for the differences with which one is born into the world.

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 release. It consists in 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). Only a thing that serves as a means can be purified, as the sacrificial vessel or clarified butter by the sprinkling of water and so on. (Commentary on Bhr, Upanishads 3-3-1)

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 or 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 that 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)

You will not realize God in truth if you get stuck with the theory of Karma. Sage Sankara says the Advaitic orthodoxy is meant for ignorant people and Advaitic Gnana is meant for most advanced seekers of truth.

The rituals mentioned in the karmakanda of the Vedas are sought to be negated in the jnanakanda which is also part of the same scripture. While the karmakanda enjoins upon you the worship of various deities and lays down rules for the same, the jnanakanda constituted by the Upanishads ridicules the worshiper of deities as a dim-witted person no better than a beast.

This seems strange, the latter part of the Vedas contradicting the former part. The first part deals throughout with karma, while the second or concluding part is all about jnana. Owing to this difference, people have gone so far as to divide our scripture into two sections: the Vedas (that is the first part) to mean the karmakanda and the Upanishads (Vedanta) to mean the jnanakanda.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (8) - Fools, dwelling in darkness, but wise in their own conceit and puffed up with vain scholarship, wander about, being afflicted by many ills, like blind men led by the blind.

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 gave religious, ritual, or dogmatic instruction to the populace, but Advaitic wisdom only to the few who could rise to it.

If you mix Advaitic orthodoxy with Advaitic wisdom creates confusion, because they mix up the two viewpoints. Thus, they may assert that ritual is a means of realizing Brahman, which is absurd.

Sage Goudapada says:~ The merciful Veda teaches karma and Upaasana to people of lower and middling intellect, while Jnana is taught to those of higher intellect.

The Moksha is not a result of ritual action (karma marga) or of devotional or bhakti. The rituals and devotionally performed worship to an imaginary God within the illusory world with the illusory identity (you) will not yield any fruit.

It is time for people to realize that religion, religious Gods, and their rituals code of conduct, and theories are meant for the ignorant populace which is incapable of realizing God in truth.

The religious people hold the individual experience of birth, life, death, and the world as reality. From the Advaitic perspective, the present birth itself is an illusion therefore the question of rebirth and reincarnation holds no water.

Sage Sankara says the universe is an illusion it means whatever the universe contains is bound to be an illusion. The individual experience of birth, life, and death, which happens within the universe, is bound to be an illusion.

The ‘Self’ is not you but the ‘Self’ is the Soul, which has no karma because the Soul is formless, timeless, and spaceless existence. Karma is possible only within the domain of form, time, and space. From the standpoint of the Soul; the ‘Self’ the form, time and space are merely an illusion.

What is the Advaita concept of the liberation of Advaitic orthodoxy?

In the orthodox analysis, human life and behavior are explained based on the theory of karma, which sets the cycle of rebirths into motion. All actions, good or bad, create their own karmic residues called Vasanas, which exhibit their results over a period of time. The karma which has already started taking fruit is called Prarabdha Karma. This is the karma that is responsible for the current birth. The accumulated karma which is yet to take fruit is called sancita karma. As long as the cycle of rebirth continues, more karma will be done in the future, and this is called Again karma. Liberation (moksha) is the way out of this endless cycle. The karma theory is merely a religious and yogic fable.

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

Karma (Action) will not dispel ignorance itself. Karma itself is based on ignorance Only Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana will destroy ignorance.

The person who is based on the experience of birth, life, death and the world is trying to find the meaning of life. There is no meaning or purpose in life because life is merely happening within the dualistic illusion.

Thus, the Karma Theory based on the physical entity is based on the birth, life, and death, which is part and parcel of the universe, which is the dualistic illusion or Maya.

The Soul, the Self has no karma. The Soul, the Self has no sorrow. The Soul, the Self has no craving. The Soul, the Self is unchanging awareness. The Soul, the Self is present in the form of consciousness everywhere and in everything in all three states.

The karma theory is based on the birth entity, which is the false self (ego or the waking entity) within the false experience (waking). : ~Santthosh Kumaar