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exhausted and it cannot be experienced at once as some portion of it may bear bad and some good effects. For instance, some may produce effect in the 'svarga' and some in the naraka' and therefore they have to be experienced at different times ; but all that Karma has to be exhausted. That part of the Sañcita Karma which begins to operate is called 'Prārabdha Karma'. The Vedanta sūtra mentions the distinction between prärabdha and anarabdha karya. The Karma which has started operating and which an individual bas brought with him out of Sancita needs to be exhausted. The anarabdha Karma can be destroyed by jñana. However, one who has attained jñana has also to await till the prärabdha Karma that he brought with him at the time of birth gets completely exhausted. But if he forcibly decides to give up his life before the prārbdha Karma is exhausted he has to be reborn to experience the fruits of the remaining karma.36
In Buddhism there is no substance as soul. What transmigrates is not a person but his Karma.37 When the series of mental states which constitutes the self resulting from a chain of acts ends, there would still be some acts and their effects which continue and the vijñāna projects into the future due to the force of the effects of Karma. The Buddhists distinguish acts accompanied by aśrava (impure acts) from pure acts which are not accompanied by aśrava. Saṁsāra is the effect of Karma. Our present happiness and misery are the fruits of what we have done in the past. Operation of Karma can be considered as a principle of moral life, as a force limiting and particularising personality and as a principle of conservation of energy in the physical world. Buddhism also accepts the principle that inequalities in life are due to the accretion and operation of Karma in individuals. In the Milinda Pañhà “venerable Nāgasena”, asked the king, “why are men not all alike, but some short-lived and some long, some sickly and some healthy, some weak and some strong, some poor and some rich, some base and some noble, some stupid and some clever ...?”
"Why, your majesty", replied the Elder, "are not all plants alike, but some astringent, some salty, some pungent, some sour, and some sweet ... ?"
“I suppose, your Reverence, Because they come from different seeds."
"And so it is with men ! They are not alike because of different Karmas. As the Lord said “Beings each have their own Karma. They are born through karma, they become members of tribes and families through Karma, each is ruled by Karma, it is Karma that divides them into high and low.'”
“Very good, your Reverence !"38
36. Vedānta Sutra. 4.1, 13-15. 37. Abhidhamma Kosa Bhāsya. iii. 24. 88, Milinda Panha (Trenckner), p. 65.
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