Is there Karma for a liberated being?
Is there Karma for a liberated being? No, the Upanishads say the liberated being is freed from all the bondages of Karma (Mundaka: bhidyate hrdaya granthih, etc.). Here Karma means the unseen results of an action (Karma Phala = Punya + Papa) of which there are 3 types: Sancita, Prarabdha, Agami (http://advaita-academy.org/blogs/karmic-accounting-the-3-karmas/) – please familiarise yourself with these 3 types if you are not already familiar, else the rest of this article will not make sense…
In the case of most of us who are not yet enlightened (but on our journey there!), we will all certainly be affected by these 3. But in the case of the enlightened, what actually happens to each of these 3? The answer is this:
1. What happens to ‘Prarabdha Karma’ for an enlightened person?
It remains, just like it remains for an unenlightened person. Prarabdha Karma is not destroyed by Self-Knowledge. Prarabdha can only be exhausted in one way: the experience of pleasure and pain in this life. This true for both enlightened and unenlightened people.
This is why enlightened people have different lives, they are not all physically the same. Some live long, some do not. Some are healthy, some are sick. So enlightened people also get sick, grow old, feel hungry and thirsty. If so, then what’s the difference between an enlightened and unenlightened person? The difference is in terms of identification with the body:
– Unenlightened: Body is Sick = I am Sick = I suffer
– Enlightened: Body is Sick = I am not Sick = I do not suffer
Why? Because he/she knows ‘I am not the body’ (http://advaita-academy.org/blogs/am-i-this-physical-body/), therefore the enlightened person does not identify with the body. Just like if my house leaks, it doesn’t mean that I leak (I do not identify myself as the house even though I live in it).
2. What happens to ‘Sancita Karma’ for an enlightened person?
Sancita is totally destroyed for the enlightened. How? By the clear knowledge that ‘I am Isvara’ (Tat Tvam Asi). How does this knowledge destroy Sancita Karma? Because Self Knowledge is in the form of knowing there is no individual anymore, there is no Jiva, as Jiva is one with the Universe (Isvara). Individuality is dissolved. Hence if there is no individual Jiva to ‘claim’ the Sancita, then who will experience this Sancita after death in the next birth? There is no one left to experience it!
Just like, if a person commits a crime, the police want to punish him. But the police now find that the criminal is dead. So who can the police punish for his crime? No one. There is no one there to punish anymore! No one there to ‘claim’ the punishment, so the police can only do 1 thing….close the case and ‘write-off’ the punishment. Similarly, there is no one left to be ‘punished’ by Sancita, as the individual is no longer there. So all Sancita is ‘written-off’ for the enlightened. Hence, there is no re-birth for the enlightened.
3. What happens to ‘Agami Karma’ for an enlightened person?
To answer this, we need to understand there are 2 types of Agami: 1 – Fructifies in this life. 2 – Fructifies in future lives. For 2, these are destroyed for the enlightened person as this agami at death joins sancita (see http://advaita-academy.org/blogs/karmic-accounting-the-3-karmas/). So by the above ‘sancita’ explanation it is destroyed. But for 1, it is said that the Agami punya earned by the enlightened person, does not come back to him, but goes to his disciples who serve him and pray to him. The enlightened person’s agami papa goes to those people who criticise and hurt him. This is why it is considered a privilege to worship and serve enlightened people. Obviously the enlightened person themselves would not be particularly concerned either way, as they have no individuality.
So this in this way, the enlightened one is freed from the bonds of Sancita, Prarabdha and Agami Karma. They cross all sorrow (Ch Up 7.1.3: Atmavit shokam tarati) and attain ultimate peace (brahmananda) whilst living and after death.
This is marks the end of the brilliant ‘Introduction to Vedanta’ text called ‘Tattvabodha’, authored by a great Shankaracharya in the Vedantic teaching lineage. By fully assimilating all the knowledge contained in this single text, one can become enlightened and be free from all suffering.
Om Shantih Shantih Shantih.
Aditya.
