Sage Dattatreya
The Brahmin continued to ask:
O Prince! How can there be any residue of past karma in a jnani? Does not jnana burn away all karma as fire does a heap of camphor?
Then Hemangada replied: Listen, Brahmin! The three kinds of karma - mature (prarabdha), pending (agami) and in store (sanchita) are common to all - not excluding the jnani. The first of these alone remains for the jnani and the other two are burnt away. Karma matures by the agency of time; such is divine law. When mature, it is bound to yield its fruits.
The karma of the one who is active after Self-realization, is rendered ineffective by his wisdom. Karma already mature and now yielding results is called prarabdha: it is like an arrow already shot from a bow which must run its course until its momentum is lost.
[Note: Prarabdha must bear fruits and cannot be checked by realisation of the Self. But there is no enjoyment of its fruits by the realised Sage.]
Environments are only a result of prarabdha: though they seem the same for all, jnanis react to them differently according to their own stages of realization. Pleasure and pain are apparent to the least among the sages, but do not leave any mark on them as they do on the ignorant; pleasure and pain operate on the middle class of sages in the same way; however, they react only indistinctly to their surroundings, as a man in sleep does to a gentle breeze or to an insect creepong over him; pleasure and pain are again apparent to the highest among the sages, who, however, look upon them as unreal, like a hare growing horns.
The Brahmin continued to ask:
O Prince! How can there be any residue of past karma in a jnani? Does not jnana burn away all karma as fire does a heap of camphor?
Then Hemangada replied: Listen, Brahmin! The three kinds of karma - mature (prarabdha), pending (agami) and in store (sanchita) are common to all - not excluding the jnani. The first of these alone remains for the jnani and the other two are burnt away. Karma matures by the agency of time; such is divine law. When mature, it is bound to yield its fruits.
The karma of the one who is active after Self-realization, is rendered ineffective by his wisdom. Karma already mature and now yielding results is called prarabdha: it is like an arrow already shot from a bow which must run its course until its momentum is lost.
[Note: Prarabdha must bear fruits and cannot be checked by realisation of the Self. But there is no enjoyment of its fruits by the realised Sage.]
Environments are only a result of prarabdha: though they seem the same for all, jnanis react to them differently according to their own stages of realization. Pleasure and pain are apparent to the least among the sages, but do not leave any mark on them as they do on the ignorant; pleasure and pain operate on the middle class of sages in the same way; however, they react only indistinctly to their surroundings, as a man in sleep does to a gentle breeze or to an insect creepong over him; pleasure and pain are again apparent to the highest among the sages, who, however, look upon them as unreal, like a hare growing horns.
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