________________
BRAHMANISM
acts, but which have not yet begun to germinate. Left alone, these would generate in time a set of latent dispositions, which would yield a biography, but they are still in the seed-state; they have not begun to sprout, mature, and transform themselves into the harvest of a life. 2. Āgāmi-karma: the seeds that would normally collect and be stored if one were to continue in the path of ignorance basic to the present biography; i.c., the destiny not yet contracted. 3. Prārabdha-karma: the seeds collected and stored in the past that have actually begun to grow; i.e., the karma bearing fruit in the shape of actual events. These events are the incidents and elements of our present biography, as well as the traits and dispositions of the personality producing and enduring them; they will continue to shape the present existence until its close.
Now the realization of the Self destroys immediately the latent force of all sañcita-karma, while the detachment that follows makes impossible the accumulation of āgāmi-karma. Though the perfect sage "released in life" may appear to be active in the phenomenal sphere, he is not really putting himself into his actions any longer; at root he is inactive, and so the first two types of karma do not affect him any more. Nevertheless prārabdhakarma, the germs of individual destiny that have been yielding the harvest of his present biography, cannot be done away. These produce the momentum of the continued phenomenal life of the "man liberated-while-yet-alive," but since they are not being refreshed they will die away presently, and the man will disappear."
188
Meanwhile, the sage liberated-while-yet-alive, who has attained
183 "The work that fashioned this body prior to the dawn of knowledge is not destroyed by that knowledge until it yields its fruits-like an arrow shot at an object. The arrow that is shot at an object with the idea that it is a tiger does not, when the object is perceived to be a cow, check itself; it goes on and pierces the object with all its force" (Sankara, Vivekacudamani 451-452).
442
