Talk:Transcending Karm through mokṣa:Bhakti Yog and Karm:Destruction of Prārabdha Karm by Bhakti Yog

By Vishal Agarwal

The result of prārabdha karm, or ripened karm that has come into play, must be experienced and it cannot be wished away or destroyed. Some teachers like Swāmī Śivānanda interpret Gītā 4.37 (“The fire of spiritual wisdom then incinerates to ashes ALL karmās”) to mean that even prārabdha karmās are destroyed when spiritual wisdom dawns.

But all traditional commentators add the caveat that the phrase ‘All karmās’ excludes prārabdha karmās and this seems to be the logical explanation for two reasons – first, we do see that enlightened saints like Swāmī Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa and Rāmāṇa Mahārṣi died what we’d call a painful death. Second, it is this prārabdha karm that results in our rebirth, and the body we have. So obviously, destruction of prārabdha karm will lead to instant death of the ‘beneficiary’ which is our body. In other words, if spiritual wisdom literally destroys all of our prārabdha karmās, then a person’s body should disappear or dissolve the moment he attains spiritual perfection or enlightenment. But we do not see this happen.

Śrīdhara Svāmī clarifies under this verse that ‘all karmā’ does not include prārabdha karm. In other words, prārabdha karm is not reduced to ashes by knowledge because it has already come to fruition. Śaṅkarācārya too cites the following passage to qualify the statement of the Gītā that ‘all karmās are reduced to ashes’:

He has to wait only as long as he is unreleased; then, he attains perfection. Sāmaveda, Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.14.2

Śaṅkarācārya uses this Upaniṣadic passage to conclude under this verse of the Gītā that the phrase ‘all karmā’ does not include the prārabdha karm. Other śāstra-s too declare that the prārabdha karm must be experienced and borne even after one has become spiritually enlightened. For example, Brahmasūtra 4.1.19 declares that prārabdha karm is not extinguished by jñāna and must be experienced till it is exhausted. This is how Śaṅkarācārya and all other commentators explain this particular sūtra. In short,

the tradition is fairly unanimous that spiritual enlightenment destroys one’s sañcita and kriyamāṇa karmās, but not the prārabdha karm, and the present verse of Gītā must be interpreted accordingly.

Swāmī Chidbhavananda (p. 317) explains that the fire of knowledge destroys the sañcita and the kriyamāṇa karmās. It does not destroy the prārabdha karmās but renders them ineffective because the jñānī pays no more attention to them than to the shadow of his body. This is a very interesting interpretation because it is proven by the lives of great enlightened sants. For instance, Rāmāṇa Mahārṣi died of a cauliflower-sized tumor on his arm, and yet he bore the pain patiently till the very end. Swāmī Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa had cancer in his throat that caused a lot of pain. His disciples often asked him to use his spiritual powers to approach Devī Kālī and cure himself, but he thought that perpetuation of his body was too trivial a boon to ask of the Divine because death would actually liberate his ātmā and merge in the infinite bliss of mokṣa.