[Advaita-l] Are actions essentially meaningless?

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Vinayaka prabhuji
Hare Krishna

I am really surprised to see the widening of prArabdha scope in advaita 
vedAnta!!  Earlier I was thinking that prArabdha, is utmost, would cause 
the mere continuation of the body of the realized soul, though for that 
soul existence or otherwise of that body hardly matters..But now, I've 
been told various scopes of prArabdha karma phala, i.e. including jnAni's 
avidyAlesha,  occasional slip, jnAni's rAga-dvesha, its superiority over 
paramArtha jnAna etc. And latest is your below observation that 'cause' of 
jnAna (Atma jnAna)  is prArabdha.

I remember reading/hearing somewhere that the dawn of jnAna itself is due
to a favourable prArabdha and since prArabdha is the 'cause' of jnAna,
jnAna cannot nullify prArabdha.

>  while I agree that our present body, conducive environment etc. are the 
product of our prArabdha karma phala, I dont quite understand how jnAna is 
the part of this prArabdha karma phala.  If that is the case, our jnAna is 
already 'fixed' somewhere in future (if we are already not realized :-)) 
and we would attain it (or may not be attained it forever if it is not 
there in prArabdha karma phala list !!) whether we do the sAdhana or not!! 
.  Since the prAradbha karma phala is an arrow that already left the bow, 
we dont (cannot) have to do much about realizing this jnAna which is 
'already' fixed and would happen automatically when the time is ripe, is 
it not :-)) 


Does this explanation appear in the bhAshya/acceptable to the traditional 
view?

>  To my limited knowledge, shankara does not say anywhere that paramArtha 
jnAna is prArabdha karma phala, but I dont know I may get the surprise 
gift from the bhAshya itself :-))

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar