Trev Light Bown: - Thus the karma based
on the physical entity is based on the birth, life and death, which is part and
parcel of the illusion.".
So now are you saying karma effects are illusion. Are not the karma effects birth life and everything as it is that happens to that soul who believes in false self.
The karma effects must play itself out. Each
thought action of mind is the life story. So this mind living can be seen as
illusion from soul awareness point of view that is timeless formless being
unaffected by matter mind time duality.So now are you saying karma effects are illusion. Are not the karma effects birth life and everything as it is that happens to that soul who believes in false self.
So yes I suppose karma is indeed duality bound.
SK: - When the self is neither
the body nor the ego, neither the waking entity nor the dream entity but the
self is the formless soul, the innermost self, then how the karma based on the
false self (form or waking entity) within the false experience(waking) can yield
fruits. Therefore, karma is a religious
fable based on form.
The karma theory
is reality only for those who believe their present physical identity (ego) as
real, and world as reality. When Sage Sri, Sankara declares the world itself is
illusion, and Brahman is real, then what value the karma theory has when the
world is illusion, because man is part and parcel of the illusory world.
Therefore, one has to view and judge the three states on the standpoint of the formless
soul, the innermost self in order to overcome the duality, which he is
experiencing it as reality. The
individuality is reality within the illusory world. Therefore, all the theories
created within the illusion on the base of false entity, within the false
experience, has to be the part and parcel of the illusion. Thus it is necessary to realize the fact that Atman is the true self and all else is illusion, to overcome the illusory concept
of cycle of birth, life and death. Thus
to understand and assimilate Sri, Sankara’s Advaitic truth, seeker has to
do his own home work through inquiry, analysis and reasoning on the true
base, without mixing religion, scriptures, theories concept of god and yoga.
Sage Sri Sankara says 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 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 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 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 reality only on the base of 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
reality. Thus the freedom which one is seeking will remain distant
dream. For the one who accepts the birth life and death as reality,
Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is impossible.