Sage Sankara:~ Karma cannot destroy ignorance +

Sage Sankara:~   “Action (karma)  cannot destroy ignorance, for it is not in conflict with or opposed to ignorance. Knowledge does verily destroy ignorance as light destroys deep darkness”. ~ Atma Bodha

The Soul the 'Self' has no karma because it is ever formless, timeless and spaceless existence. The Soul the 'Self' has no sorrow. The Soul the 'Self ' has no craving. The Soul the  'Self' is unchanging awareness. The Soul the  'Self'  is present in the form of consciousness is everywhere and in everything in all three states. 

Sage Sankara says clearly, the universe is not real. He says that Brahman and Atman are one. The ultimate and the Absolute Truth is the ‘Self’, which is one though appearing as many in different individuals. The individual has no reality. Only the ‘Self’ is Real; the rest, mental and physical are but passing appearances, then it indicates the form (waking) is unreal the formless is real (Soul).  Therefore, only Atman is real because there is no second thing other than Atman.

Sage  Sankara also clearly mentions that:-

The path of religion, the theory of karma, the path of yoga and the path of wisdom were intended for different classes of people. The wisdom is for the advanced seekers of truth. It deals with the nature of the ultimate truth or the ultimate Reality. It is meant for superior aspirants who have the inner urge to know the truth and it is not for those who are immersed in earthly desires.

Sage Goudpada says:~ The merciful Veda teaches karma and Upasana to people of lower and middling intellect while Jnana is taught to those of higher intellect.

It means the people who follow religion and worship of guru and conceptual God and believe in karma theory are lower and middling intellect.  But in this modern world, people are sharp enough to understand and assimilate the ultimate truth or Brahman or god. Thus, it is high time to discard the lower knowledge and move ahead to realize the ultimate truth, which is Brahman or God in truth.   

Religious people believe the Karma theory is a universal theory.  The Karma theory is a religious and yogic fable.

The Karma theory is a universal theory for those who believe the dualistic illusion as a reality.  The karma is a reality only for those who believe the false ‘Self’ (ego or you) as the real ‘Self’ and the false experience (waking or universe) as a  reality.

The Karma theory is a reality for those who believe the experience, the form, time and space as a reality.  Karma theory is a reality for those who believe in individualized God.  The Karma theory is a reality for those who believe in the experience of birth, life, death, and rebirth, and the world as a reality.  

The karma performed in the dream becomes unreal when the waking takes place. Similarly, the waking karma becomes unreal when wisdom dawns. The karma theory is the universal theory when the karma is limited to the waking experience alone. 

The wisdom dawns when you (doer of karma) realize you are not the ‘Self’, but the ‘Self’ is the formless Soul.  Thus all theories based on you (form) are falsehood because the Soul, the ‘Self’ is ever formless, timeless and spaceless existence.

If the ‘Self’ is not the waking entity but the ‘Self’ is formless Soul then how anyone can accept the theory of karma, which is based on false ‘Self’ within the false experience.

Thus,  whatever theories are based on the false ‘Self’ (waking entity or ego) and false experience (waking or world) is bound to be the falsehood.   

Karma is a reality only for those who are stuck with the reality of practical life within the practical world because they have accepted the world as a reality. 

Thus,  without knowing what witnesses the coming and going, of the three states how can one say the karma theory is the universal theory when karma is limited to the waking experience alone.  

If the ‘Self’ is not the waking entity but the ‘Self’ is formless Soul then how anyone can accept the theory of karma, which is based on false ‘Self’ within the false experience.

Thus,  whatever theories are based on the false ‘Self’ (waking entity or ego) and false experience (waking or world) is bound to be the falsehood.   

Karma is a reality only for those who are stuck with the reality of the practical life within the practical world because they have accepted the world as reality. 

Remember:

What is the doer, what is the enjoyer, what is a cessation of thought and rising of thought, what is immediate perception and its result, to the Soul, the innermost ‘Self’, the ever impersonal?  

What is the world, what is meant by the aspirant for liberation; what is the contemplative man and what is a man of knowledge; what is the Soul in bondage and what is liberated Soul to the innermost ‘Self', which is ever formless and non-dual.   

What is Prarabdha Karmas, what is even liberation in life, and what is that and where is liberation at death for the Soul, the  ‘Self', which is ever attributeless? 

The nearest state to understand the Soul by itself is to eliminate the whole waking experience, as in deep sleep. Once this is grasped one has to understand that the three states are Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness, that Soul or consciousness is the ‘Self’. 

Whether the karma theory existed prior to Buddhism or time immemorial is not the question. Karma theory is based on the form, time and space whereas the ultimate truth or Brahman is based on formless, timeless and spaceless existence. Thus, one has to decide whether the ‘Self’ is in the form of ‘Self’ is formless. If ‘Self’ is the form then karma theory has value but if the ‘Self’ is formless then the karma theory has no value.

Deeper self-search reveals the fact that the karma theory is meant for those who are immersed in worldly life thinking the individual life within the particle world as reality. In the path of the truth, the karma theory becomes a great obstacle in realizing the truth. 

The person who bases on the birth, life, and death is trying to find the meaning of life. There is no meaning or purpose of life because life is mere happening within the dualistic illusion.  Thus,  the karma theory based on the physical entity is based on the birth, life, and death, which is part and parcel of the dualistic illusion. 

Even Sage Sankara indicates in Aparokshanubhuti:~

   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 into 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 false self within the false experience, where one thinks practical life within the practical world as reality or the universes as reality whereas the practical life within the practical world is merely an illusion from the ultimate standpoint.   When one becomes aware of the fact that, the true Selfs formless Soul, then the karma becomes part and parcel of 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 the birth, life,  and death as a reality, Self-knowledge is impossible.:~Santthosh Kumaar