Individual actions and conducts [Karma] are not the means to acquire Self-Knowledge***

If one thinks Advaitic truth is the ultimate truth, then one has to drop all theories based on the physical body [ego] as self, because Advaitic truth is based on the soul, which is the true self. 

By accepting the karma theory, one is  accepting the false self, as the real self, and world as reality, therefore there is no need for self inquiry “Who am ‘I’ “, because one has  accepted the present physical identity and world as reality.  Self inquiry makes one realize the fact that, the ‘Self’ is not the body. After knowing the fact that the  self is not the body, then it is erroneous to think again as the body as self, and holding the body based theories as reality.  Thus, the karma theory becomes a biggest obstacle in the path of inquiry and truth, because it does not allow the seeker to cross the threshold of duality.

The physical body and the world which exist only in waking or dream or duality are impermanent and illusory in nature, because they appear and disappear as mind. The soul which is the formless substance and  the witness of the duality is permanent. Therefore, whatever is seen known and believed and experienced as real within the waking also is as real as a dream.

Sage Sri, Sankara in Aparokshanubhuti:-

   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 of 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 in 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 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 maintains this, they will not only involve themselves into 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 the karma is a reality only on the base of the false self, where one thinks body and the universes as reality. When one becomes aware of the fact that, the true self is formless soul, then the karma becomes part and parcel of illusion.   My point is that, if one accepts the karma theory as reality, he will never be able to come out of the ignorance. And ignorance makes him believe the cycle of birth, life and death as a reality.  Thus, the freedom which one is seeking will remain a distant dream. For the one who accepts the birth, life and death as a reality, Self-knowledge is impossible.

Thus, it is necessary for the seeker of truth to know the fact that, the body which is born, lives and dies is not the self. Since he is taking the body to be the self, he is experiencing the duality as reality.

 As Sri, Sankara says:  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.

 If the body is not the self, then the karma theory has no meaning on the standpoint of the truth. Thus, no second thing exists other than soul or consciousness, therefore why to view the worldwide or [three states  on the standpoint of the body as self (ego) when the body (ego) is the false self, and the formless  soul or consciousness, the innermost  self.

Essence of Ashtavakra is: Realizing soul  or the consciousness as self, the liberation is possible in this very life right here and right now, not in the next life  or the next world.

The Religion, theories scriptures and concept of God are created as a  tool for conditioning the populace, to control the  individual mind. All religious injected theories make the religious believer  to self judge "what is good" and "what is evil", with the fear of conceptual God, who  in turn punish them, or reward them with good or bad life, in the next life and in the next world.  Such theories are based on the false self (ego or you) within the false experience (waking).    The  Religious founders believed this fear of God  helps to maintain peace and harmony in the society. Both the man and the world exist within the mind.  And  the mind is a myth on the standpoint of the soul, the innermost self.  Thus, all the theories based on the false self (you) has no value in the  Advaitic reality.  


Mundaka Upanishad:- 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.
-First Mundaka -10-   Chapter I (Source: "the upanishads - a new translation" by swami nikhilananda in four volumes)

Therefore, Individual actions and conducts (Karma) are not the means to acquire Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.