Karma theory is based on the birth,life and death whereas the soul, innermost self is birth-less because it is formless.

 As Sri, Sankara says:  When the whole universe, movable and immovable, is known to be Atman, which is in the form of consciousness, and thus the existence of everything else is negated, where is then any room to say that the body is Atman or self.

 If waking entity  is not the  self, than the karma theory has no meaning.  Karma theory is based on the birth,life and death whereas the soul,  innermost self is birth-less because it is formless.  from the ultimate standpoint no second thing exists other than soul  or consciousness, therefore why to view the three states on the standpoint of the waking entity,which is the false self within the false experience. 

 Essence of Ashtvakara is:- Realizing Atman as self, the liberation is possible in this very life right here and right now, not in the next life /next world.

Religion, theories scriptures and concept of God are   created as tool for conditioning the mass mind set, to control their individualized mind, to self-judge, what is good and what is evil, with the fear of conceptual god, who will in turn punish them, or reward them with good or bad life, in life after life which is only illusion.  And this fear helps to maintain peace and harmony in the society to some extent. But man and world exist within the mind and mind is myth on the standpoint of the soul as self, thus all the theories based on the false hood, have no relevance in the realm of the non-dual truth. 

Brahma Sutras, i.e. "Vedanta Sutras" by Badarayana, are intended for those of middling intellects, not for those who have the best brains: it is a semi-theological, semi-philosophical work; it starts with the assumption that Brahman exists.

The opening sentence is "All this is Brahman.” But nobody knows or has seen Brahman. If one say "All this is mountain” and show the mountain, the words are understandable. Suppose he has never seen mountain. Then what is the use of such a sentence? It becomes meaningless when the object indicated is seen by none. 

 Bookish knowledge   is intended for theological minds, because it begins with dogma although its reasoning is close. For it starts with something imagined.

Since people negate the self along with mind when they are to  -  Neti, Neti-  they does not know that this is applied only to the witnessed[universe or mind] , pundits  ignorantly believes that it is also applied to the formless witness . one should never negates the formless witness(soul) , only the witnessed [universe or mind].  Thus, all knowledge based on egocentric non-dualism is mere playing with ornamental words not truth.