When Sage Sri, Sankara says the world is an illusion then what effect the karmas performed in the illusory world will have any value.*****

There is no need to study the scriptures, or indulge in glorifying Gods and Gurus or performing religious rituals. Since they are not the means to acquire non-dual wisdom. It is only waste of time and effort to indulge in those things.

The individual ‘Self’ is not real, is not accepted by many. The Advaitic wisdom is based not on the individual ‘Self’ (ego). Until people hold the ‘I’ as the witness, they will not reach the ultimate understanding.

The orthodoxy has to be dropped if one has chosen the path of wisdom. The orthodoxy is the greatest hindrance in pursuit of truth because it makes the inborn samskara or conditioning more and stronger. Until this conditioning or samskaras prevails it is impossible to grasp, assimilate and realize the Advaitic truth, which is beyond the form, time and space.

The Advaitic orthodoxy is egocentric and egocentricity is the greatest obstacle in the Atmic path. The orthodoxy is based on non-Vedic beliefs of Gods and indulging non-Vedic rituals’ such adulterated version of rituals leads one nowhere and it is waste of time and effort. The orthodoxy is not for those who are seriously seeking truth nothing but the truth. Mixing orthodoxy and preaching Advaita is a foolish venture.

The Advaitic orthodoxy accepts the karma theory, which is based on the birth entity, which is the false self within the false experience (world). Remember, the “Self” is unborn Soul, which is present in the form of the consciousness. The Soul has no birth and no death because it is the ever formless, timeless and spaceless existence.

Thus, holding the karma theory as reality is holding the illusory world in which you are born, living and going to die as a reality. When Sage Sri, Sankara says the world is an illusion then what effect the karmas performed in the illusory world will have any value.

Sage Sri Sankara: ~ “Action (karma) cannot destroy ignorance, for it is not in conflict with or opposed to ignorance. Knowledge does verily destroy ignorance as light destroys deep darkness. -Atma Bodha

Sage Sri Sankara says in Aparoksh Anubhuti: ~

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 the 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 theory is a reality only on the base of false ‘Self’, where one thinks the world in which he exists as a reality. When one becomes aware of the fact that, the ‘Self’ is not the ‘I’ but the ‘Self’ is the Soul, then the karma becomes part and parcel of illusion.

if one accepts the karma theory as a reality, he will never be able to come out of the ignorance. And ignorance makes him believe the cycle of birth, life, and death or pain and pleasure 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 reality, it is impossible to acquire ‘Self’-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.: ~ Santthosh Kumaar