[Advaita-l] Doubts on Karma, future births etc.

[RAMESH RAMANAN]

Dear Sri Sureshji,

You have raised a very valid question. I think that all the shastras (especially the ones relating to advaita vedanta) are unanimous that there is no guarantee of salvation, whatsoever, without the direct attainment of Self-knowledge (which is also variously called as Brahma-Jnana/Atman-jnana/brahma vidya/atma vidya etc) through spiritual experience. The one, who has attained this stage, know, without any trace of doubt that he has transcended the vicious cycle of births and deaths and that he has gotten rid of all his karmas, by surrendering his sense of doership and offering the fruits of his actions to God (not merely verbally, but intuitively and experientially, after realizing that he is merely an humble tool/instrument in the hands of God, who determines everything). I think this stage of direct spiritual realization ensures that the karana shareera (causal body, which is the cause of the present birth) of the spiritual sadhaka drops away, thus
 effectively ending any chance of his rebirth.  


Pranams once again, 

Ramesh 




On Monday, 30 December 2013, 20:30, Suresh <mayavaadi at yahoo.com> wrote:
 
Namaste,

I am aware of the basics - that we all come into this world with some karma to work through. We may also accumulate more karma, so we must perform our duties in such a way that we dont - nishkama karma. Point is, Karma should be eliminated completely for us to realize our true nature and NOT take birth again.

My doubt is, How do we know that our karmas are being exhausted? Is there any tangible hint, or must we simply assume this? If a person still has greed or anger issues, lust etc., is it safe to assume that he has a long way to go, many more births? So we observe our own behavior and then conclude as to how much karma we have left? 

I am confused about this because there are many people who do sadhana for years but they remain the same (insofar as character or behavior is concerned) even after, say, 20 years. Does this mean their karmas are not being eliminated by their sadhana - meaning their sadhana is faulty - or does it mean these things cannot be empirically observed (and therefore no solid conclusion can be drawn)?

Any insights?

Suresh
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