Prose-section 48
In plain words
By the fire of knowledge ‘Brahman alone am I’, the karma stored up over countless ages is destroyed, just as the good and bad deeds done in a dream bring neither heaven nor hell to one who has woken. Because he knows himself to be Brahman, untouched and unconcerned like space, the karma still to come does not stick to him either, just as the smell of wine in a pot does not stick to the space in the pot; it is burnt up and gone. ‘Where there is karma there is its fruit; where there is none, there is none’: by this rule, while its fruits such as pleasure are still being felt, karma has not ended, and so a knower always absorbed in samādhi is sometimes seen acting outwardly and tasting fruits. An arrow shot at what the archer took for a tiger does not stop when he sees it is a cow; it strikes. In the same way the karma that began before knowledge does not stop without giving its fruit. So scripture speaks of prārabdha, itself false: ‘For the knower only prārabdha remains, and it ends by being lived out.’ One who has woken from a dream does not go into that dream world, does not want its unreal pleasures, and does not take the dream body and its world as ‘I’, ‘mine’ and ‘this’ while awake; he is simply at ease in waking. If he still clings to the dream, he has not left sleep. In the same way, those who have come to the oneness of Brahman and Self see nothing else. They eat, evacuate and so on as one remembers a dream, and remain always as Brahman alone, free of any tie to conditions. Being Brahman without qualities, they have not the least of the three kinds of karma. How then can one say that prārabdha alone remains? Is there a dream for one who is awake? If it is said that the knower has prārabdha because of the body karma made, that holds only while he takes the body for the Self. He has dropped that completely and is the Self, not born of karma, without beginning and stainless, which scripture calls unborn, eternal, everlasting; where is there room to imagine prārabdha for him? To pin prārabdha on the unreal body that error imagined is itself error. How can an imagined thing really be born, live and die? And if nothing has prārabdha, why does scripture speak of it? It is to quiet the fools whose delusion has not ceased, who ask, ‘Once knowledge has destroyed ignorance and its effects, how can the knower still have a body?’, that scripture, looking from outside, speaks in part of the knower’s false prārabdha. It never asks us to accept that the body and the rest are real for the knower.
Word for word
Through the fire of knowledge ‘Brahman alone am I’, accumulated karmas acquired through countless cosmic ages are destroyed, just as merits and sins committed in a dream perish without bringing heaven or hell to one who has awakened. Knowing oneself as unattached, unaffected Brahman, like space, future karmas do not attach—just as the odours of wine and the like in pots do not attach to space through association with those pots. Thus karmas are burnt and destroyed. According to the reasoning ‘Where karma exists its result exists; otherwise not’, karma has not ceased while results such as karma-produced pleasure are experienced. Outward activity and experience of results are sometimes observed in a knower always established in samādhi. An arrow released under the impression that the target is a tiger does not stop on discovering it is a cow, but strikes its target. Likewise, prārabdha begun before knowledge does not cease without yielding its result. Revelation therefore speaks of prārabdha, itself mithyā: ‘For the knower only prārabdha remains; it ends through experience.’ One who wakes from a dream does not enter that dream world, desire enjoyment of its unreal objects, or regard the dream body and its supporting world as ‘I’, ‘mine’ and ‘this’ in waking. He rests happily in waking. If attachment to the dream remains, he has not left sleep. Similarly, knowers who attain Brahman-Self identity see nothing other. Though eating, evacuating and the like as if recollecting a dream, they always remain Brahman alone, free of attachment to adjuncts. Being attributeless Brahman, they have not the least of the three kinds of karma. How then can prārabdha alone remain? Is there a dream for one awake? If prārabdha is attributed to the knower by reference to the body made by karma, this holds only while body-Self identification remains. The knower has wholly abandoned that identification and is the beginningless pure Self, not produced by karma, described by revelation as unborn, eternal and everlasting. How can an attribution of prārabdha exist for him? Attributing prārabdha to the unreal body imagined through error is itself error. How can an imagined thing really be born, exist and die? If nothing thus has prārabdha, why does revelation speak of it? To answer the fools whose delusion has not ceased, who ask, ‘After knowledge destroys ignorance and its effects, how can the knower have a body and the rest?’ Revelation gives a partial account of mithyā prārabdha from the outward standpoint. It does not declare that body and the rest are truly real for the knower.