Brahma Knowledge

PART I: section 24. SALVATION.--I. Upanishads.--Release of the soul (mukti, moksha), which falls to the lot of the elect few, consists in enlightenment, intuitive vision of the eternal unity of the thinker's Self with Brahma, to which he has hitherto been blind. When once this saving knowledge has been gained, the enlightened man is no longer under the power of "works." He has everything in himself, for he is one with the All; together with the false idea of a self distinct from the un

There has been much speculation upon the divisions of karma. A common classification is that which divides it into sanchita, prarabdha, and kriyamana. The sanchita or "accumulated" karma is that which was created in former births and has not yet begun to operate upon the soul. Prarabdha or "commenced" karma is that which has already begun to affect the soul. Kriyamana is "being made," that is, it is the activity of the present which will influence the soul in future births. The intellectual illumination of perfect "Brahma-knowledge" annuls both sanchita and kriyamana; only the prarabdha remains, and this exhausts itself mechanically by prolonging the sage's physical life until all influence of karma is spent, and his body then dies.

The later Vedanta designates by the term jivanmukti the condition of the enlightened sage previous to death, while his prarabdha karma is exhausting itself; his subsequent condition is called videha-mukti, "emancipation in freedom from the body."