The Karma is the part and parcel of the dualistic illusion or Maya.+

Sage Goudpada says that: the merciful Veda teaches Karma and Upasana to people of lower and middling intellect while jnana is taught to those of higher intellect.

So, they clearly indicate rituals and theories are not meant for those who are searching for higher knowledge or wisdom.  

The cause of human experience is ignorance. Only through Self- Knowledge the ignorance vanishes. The Orthodox holds the view that the pursuit of the knowledge of the Self should be accompanied by the performance of Vedic rituals.

Sage Goudpada says that: the merciful Veda teaches karma and Upasana to people of lower and middling intellect while jnana is taught to those of higher intellect.

So they clearly indicate rituals and theories are not meant for those who are searching for higher knowledge or wisdom.  

Mundaka Upanishad condemns rituals.  The Para or Higher knowledge is the knowledge of the Supreme Being while the Apara or Lower Knowledge is that of following sacrificial rites and ceremonies. ( 1/2/ 1 – 6)

Orthodox think: - Karmas, when they are performed as Isvararpana without expectation of fruits, purify the heart. They prepare the ground of Antahkarana for the dawn of Brahma Jnana.

Remember:~

Sage Sankara says in his Atma Bodha: "Karmic rituals cannot destroy ignorance because they are not hostile to each other. But the knowledge certainly destroys ignorance, as light destroys the thickest darkness. When compared with other means, Jnana (knowledge of the Self) is the only direct means to freedom. As cooking is not possible without fire, so is emancipation not possible without Brahma Jnana." Sage Sankara refutes the theory of Samuchchaya-Vada.

Sage Sankara says: ~ The scriptures dealing with rituals, rewards are therefore addressed to an ignorant person.  

Sage Sankara says in Aparoksh Anubhuti:~  88. When the whole universe, movable and immovable, is known to be Atman, and thus the existence of everything else is negated, where is then any room to say that the body is Atman?

   89. O enlightened one, pass your time always contemplating on Atman while you are experiencing all the results of Prarabdha; for it ill becomes you to feel distressed.

   90. The theory one hears from the scripture, that Prarabdha does not lose its hold upon one even after the origination of the knowledge of Atman, is now being refuted.

   91. After the origination of the knowledge of Reality, Prarabdha verily ceases to exist, inasmuch as the body and the like become non-existent; just as a dream does not exist on waking.

   92. That Karma which is done in a previous life is known as Prarabdha (which produces the present life). But such Karma cannot take the place of Prarabdha (for a man of knowledge), as he has no other birth (being free from ego).

   93. Just as the body in a dream is superimposed (and therefore, illusory), so is also this body. How could there be any birth of the superimposed (body), and in the absence of birth (of the body) where is the room for that (i.e., Prarabdha) at all?

   94. The Vedanta texts declare ignorance to be verily the material (cause) of the phenomenal world just as the earth is of a jar. That (ignorance) being destroyed, where can the universe subsist?

   95. Just as a person out of confusion perceives only the snake leaving aside the rope, so does an ignorant person see only the phenomenal world without knowing the reality?

   96. The real nature of the rope being known, the appearance of the snake no longer persists; so the substratum being known, the phenomenal world disappears completely.

   97. The body also being within the phenomenal world (and therefore, unreal), how could Prarabdha exist? It is, therefore, for the understanding of the ignorant alone that the Shruti speaks of Prarabdha.

   98. “And all the actions of a man perish when he realizes that (Atman) which is both the higher and the lower”. Here the clear use of the plural by the Shruti is to negate Prarabdha as well.

   99. If the ignorant still arbitrarily maintain this, they will not only involve themselves in two absurdities but will also run the risk of forgoing the Vedantic conclusion. So one should accept those Shrutis alone from which proceeds true knowledge.

The above proves that karma is a reality only on the base of the false self, where one thinks of the body and the universes as reality. When one becomes aware of the fact that, the true Self is a birthless Soul, then karma becomes the part and parcel of the dualistic illusion.  

 My point is that, if one accepts the karma theory as reality, he will never be able to come out of ignorance. And ignorance makes him believe the cycle of birth, life, and death as a reality.  

Thus, the freedom which one is seeking will remain a distant dream. For the one who accepts birth, life, and death as a reality, Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is impossible.:~Santthosh Kumaar