Acharya Vaani
shrImadAnandatIrthArya mukhanissR^itaM
sarvAtmanAtvabhogo hi prArabdhasyaiva karmaNaH |
na brahmadarshino.api syAt | 3.4.4
Some say - all past actions are destroyed by the power of knowledge itself. As it is said in the gItA - “j~nAnAgniH sarvakarmANi bhasmasAt kurute”, the power of knowledge is such that it burns away all of one’s past actions - thus. Therefore, as all actions including all prArabdha karmas are destroyed by the power of j~nAna itself a j~nAnI need not necessarily endure the phala of prArabdha karmAs as previously stated. To this we say - this is not true. In that case, after attaining aparoxa j~nAna a j~nAnI should not continue to remain in the saMsAra. For karma is the bIja or the root for existence in saMsAra.
It is also not correct to say that a j~nAnI exists in this saMsAra for enlightening the noble though he does not have any prArabdha karma. As was said before, a person cannot exist without any karma in this saMsAra. Even if we accept that a j~nAni exists in this saMsAra without prArabdha karmas, we come to know from several purANAs and itihAsAs that he faces difficulties and takes birth again due to curses. All this cannot be explained without accepting the presence of prArabdha karmas.
Further, shR^iti passages such as “tasya tAvadeva ciram yAvanna vimoxye.atha saMpatsyate” - clearly state that the delay in liberation for an aparoxa j~nAni will be only until the destruction of all prArabdha karmas. Considering all this we can conclude that the power of knowledge is not sufficient to escape the bhoga of all prArabdha karmas.
But what about the gItA statement quoted? In the above gItA statement the term sarvakarmANi should be rightly interpreted to mean all past actions other than prArabdha karmas. So, the meaning of the gItA verse would be - the power of knowledge is such that it burns away all of one’s past actions except the prArabdha karmas.
