Verses No 91 to 93

• Ignorance is the root of prārabdha
• Prārabdha (the supposed karma that has “already begun” and sustains the body of the jīvanmukta) is only valid under avidyā.
• Once knowledge dawns, avidyā (and with it, its products) are nullified.
• Vyavahāra depends on avidyā
• All worldly dealings (eating, speaking, even the notion “I am embodied”) rely on ignorance.
• With knowledge, these lose their ontological basis.
• No prārabdha for the jñānī
• Śaṅkara is affirming the ajātivāda standpoint: if avidyā is gone, there is no scope for karma — including prārabdha.
• This tallies with Gauḍapāda’s Kārikā (3.48): “na nirodho na cotpattiḥ…” (no origination, no cessation, no bondage, no liberation).
• Teaching vs. Reality
• Though texts sometimes say “prārabdha continues even for the knower until the body falls,” here the rahasya (secret teaching) is given: in ultimate truth, prārabdha never existed.
• This preserves the two-level doctrine:
• Vyāvahārika — prārabdha seems to continue for explanation.
• Pāramārthika — no prārabdha, no bondage, no body.

• Threefold Karma as a Teaching Device
• Śaṅkara acknowledges the traditional tripartite classification of karma.
• This helps explain why bodies arise and why experiences differ.
• Ultimate Negation of Karma
• Yet, the punchline: all karma belongs only to the level of avidyā (ignorance).
• From the Self’s standpoint (ātmanah svataḥ), there is no doership (akartṛtva).
• Prārabdha as Relational, Not Absolute
• For a given body, a portion of sañcita is labeled prārabdha.
• This is only a functional, relative distinction — not ultimately real.
• Non-origination (Ajātivāda)
• The conclusion directly aligns with Gauḍapāda:
• “nānyo dharmo’sti saṃsāre…” and
• “na nirodho na cotpattiḥ…” (GK 2.32; 3.48).
• Births are only imagined due to ignorance — the Self, free of doership, never undergoes birth.
• Teaching vs. Reality
• On the vyāvahārika plane, karma is explained in three categories to help seekers.
• On the pāramārthika plane, all three (sañcita, āgāmī, prārabdha) collapse into unreality, because Brahman has no doership or change.
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• Dream as Analogy for Birth
• Just as in dream there appears a whole world with actions, experiences, and results — yet upon waking, no causal birth or karma truly existed — so too with waking life.
• The “births” we take as real are of the same order as dream appearances.
• Denial of Prārabdha in Truth
• If there is no real birth (janmābhāva), then the concept of prārabdha — karma already fructifying through the body — collapses.
• Prārabdha only makes sense under the empirical (vyāvahārika) view.
• Śaṅkara’s Two-Level Teaching
• For seekers (vyavahāra): karma is divided into sañcita, āgāmī, prārabdha to explain embodied experience.
• In reality (pāramārthika): no karma, no birth, no prārabdha exists — all is Brahman alone.
• Gaudapāda’s Ajātivāda Influence
• This is straight from Gauḍapāda’s Māṇḍūkya Kārikā 3.48:
• “na nirodho na cotpattiḥ na baddho na ca sādhakaḥ |
• na mumukṣur na vai muktaḥ ityeṣā paramārthatā ||”
• There is no birth, no bondage, no seeker, no liberation — all such distinctions vanish upon realization.