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EMANCIPATION FROM KARMA

In some of the Upanishads the problem of emancipation or salvation is closely related to the concept of karma and rebirth, and of the statement of the identity of the individual self with the world self. On the one hand, karma stresses recurrence, continual renewal and rebirth; but this very emphasis leads to a discussion of what is reborn and renewed in the cyclical process. On the other hand, the doctrine of the identity of atman and brahman stresses the permanent and unchanging. This seeming contradiction between the two concepts was solved by the understanding that the cycle of rebirth is caused by ignorance of the true nature of the Self and the failure to realize that it never changes or alters, Emancipation becomes, therefore, a process of coming to an awareness of that state of being that is beyond process, the identity of atman and brahman. To have this intuitive knowledge is to become immortal, for "knowing All, he becomes All." While in one sense it is true to say that this search is defined in terms of escape from the cycle of rebirth, on a higher level it is to be understood as the realization of the soul's true nature.

The wise one [the Self] is not born, nor dies
This one has not come from anywhere, has not become anyone.
Unborn, constant, eternal, primeval, this one
Is not slain when the body is slain...
He, however, who has not understanding,
Who is unmindful and ever impure,
Reaches not the goal,
But goes on to reincarnation.
He, however, who has understanding,
Who is mindful and ever pure,
Reaches the goal
From which he is born no more...
When are liberated all the desires that lodge in one's heart,
Then a mortal becomes immortal!
Therein he reaches Brahman!
When are cut all the knots of the heart here on earth,
Then a mortal becomes immortal!

(from Katha, I, III, and IV, selected verses)