karma

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

>Does anyone know where the first reference to the idea of not accumulating
>karma at all comes within the early scriptural texts of Buddhism and
>Hinduism. I am looking for passages in Sanskrit and/or Pali in which it is
>explicitly stated that one's goal is not accumulate karma at all, versus
the
>accumulation of good karma.
>

Valerie Roebuck already pointed to bRhadAraNyaka 4. 4. 22.
Another reference in the same text is 3. 5. 1. See also

mahAnArAyaNa 12. 14 - na karmaNA na prajayA ... amRtatvam Anazu.h
maitrAyanI 4. 3. 4 - hanti karma zubhAzubham prasannAtmA Atmani sthitvA

These two texts may not be as early as bRhad, but should be early
enough. Also, the mahAnArAyaNa verse is probably the most quoted one
in this respect, in the later Vedanta literature.

Vidyasankar