Talk:Transcending Karm through mokṣa:YJnāna Yog and Karm:Destruction of Prārabdha Karm by Jnāna 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 Swami Sivananda interpret Gītā 4.37 (“The fire of spiritual wisdom then incinerates to ashes ALL karma-s”) to mean that even prārabdha-karmas are destroyed when spiritual wisdom dawns.

But all traditional commentators add the caveat that the phrase ‘All karma-s’ excludes prārabdha-karmas and this seems to be the logical explanation for two reasons – first, we do see that enlightened saints like Swami Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa and Rāmaṇa Maharṣi 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-karmas, 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 karmas’ 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 karmas 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 karmas’ does not include the prārabdha-karm. Other śāstrā 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, it is widely accepted that spiritual enlightenment destroys one’s sañcita and kriyamāṇa karmas, but not the prārabdha-karma, and the present verse of the *Gītā* should be understood in that light.

Swami Chidbhavananda (p. 317) explains that the fire of knowledge destroys the sañcita and the kriyamāṇa karmas. It does not destroy the prārabdha-karmas 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, as shown in the lives of many great enlightened sants.For instance, Rāmaṇa Maharṣi died of a cauliflower-sized tumor on his arm, and yet he bore the pain patiently till the very end. Swami 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 it in the infinite bliss of mokṣa.

Jayadayāl Goyandaka too explains that the prārabdha-karmas, “….fail to produce any unhealthy reactions like joy and grief on his mind. In this way his prārabdha-karmas also get extinct in so far as he is concerned. As regards his current actions [kriyamāṇa or āgāmī], they do not leave any impressions at all inasmuch as he no longer entertains the feeling of doership or possession, nor attachment and desire with respect to them. Therefore, such actions cease to be actions.”

Therefore, we can conclude that jñāna does not destroy prārabdha-karm but makes it inoperative in a way because the enlightened person no longer associates with his body and has merged himself completely with the Divine. ^[1]

References[edit]

↑ As against these interpretations, after presenting the traditional and dominant Hindu view on the inevitability of experiencing Prārabdha, Swami Sivananda cites Shankaracharya’s Aparoskhānubhūti whose verses declare that even the Prārabdha Karma is destroyed upon the dawn of knowledge or Reality. The appropriate verses are 90-99 in that text. However, Shankaracharya’s reasoning about the destruction of Prārabdha is meaningful only within the paradigm of Advaita Vedānta, according to which the current as well as past lives were all illusions, due to which the karma performed in all these lives and their fruit is also bound to be an illusion. Once this knowledge of their illusory nature dawns, it becomes clear to the enlightened man that this world, our individuality, karma (including Prārabdha) and their fruit are all illusory and the only reality is Brahman. In conclusion therefore, the view stated in Aprokshānubhūti is acceptable only if one adheres to the view of Advaita Vedānta and is not supported by the Brahmasūtras or the Hindu tradition in general.

[1] As against these interpretations, after presenting the traditional and dominant Hindu view on the inevitability of experiencing Prārabdha, Swami Sivananda cites Shankaracharya’s Aparoskhānubhūti whose verses declare that even the Prārabdha Karma is destroyed upon the dawn of knowledge or Reality. The appropriate verses are 90-99 in that text. However, Shankaracharya’s reasoning about the destruction of Prārabdha is meaningful only within the paradigm of Advaita Vedānta, according to which the current as well as past lives were all illusions, due to which the karma performed in all these lives and their fruit is also bound to be an illusion. Once this knowledge of their illusory nature dawns, it becomes clear to the enlightened man that this world, our individuality, karma (including Prārabdha) and their fruit are all illusory and the only reality is Brahman. In conclusion therefore, the view stated in Aprokshānubhūti is acceptable only if one adheres to the view of Advaita Vedānta and is not supported by the Brahmasūtras or the Hindu tradition in general.

[1]