---
type: Concept
bundle: mimamsa-dharma
bundle_version: 0.10.0
id: phala
title: Phala
iast: Phala
devanagari: फल
description: 'The result an enjoined act is performed to yield, paradigmatically svarga, delivered through the act''''s unseen potency and specifying who has adhikāra; NOT a divine reward, NOT the immediate physical outcome, NOT liberation (mokṣa).'
darshana:
- Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā
text_source: Mīmāṃsā Sūtra 4.3.1
tags:
- phala
- mimamsa
- svarga
- ritual-result
not:
- term: 'a divine reward'
  why: 'Mīmāṃsā is non-theistic about ritual: the phala follows from the act through its unseen force (apūrva), not because a god dispenses it. Reading phala as reward reinserts the rewarding deity the school pointedly does without.'
  instead: 'Render phala as the result the enjoined act yields through its own unseen potency, not a reward granted by a god.'
- term: 'the immediate physical effect of the ritual'
  why: 'The phala (for example svarga) is typically unseen and deferred; the visible events of the rite are not the phala. This gap is exactly what apūrva is posited to bridge.'
- term: 'salvation or liberation (mokṣa)'
  why: 'The ritual phala is a positive attainment like svarga, within saṃsāra; it is not the liberation of Vedānta. Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā''''s classical horizon is the fruit of action, not release from action.'
related:
- /concepts/apurva.md
- /concepts/adhikara.md
- /concepts/yaga.md
timestamp: '2026-07-08'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Phala -- फल

**Not:** a divine reward, the immediate physical effect, salvation (moksha)

## What It Actually Means

The phala is the result for whose sake a desire-based rite is enjoined; the stock case is svarga. Crucially, Mīmāṃsā treats svarga not as a place ruled by a god but functionally, as the state of unmixed satisfaction the rite yields, defined by the injunction and delivered by apūrva. Naming the phala fixes the adhikāra (only its desirer is enjoined) and gives apūrva its target. Obligatory (nitya) rites, by contrast, are enjoined without a stated phala, which is part of why Prabhākara holds the ought can stand without a promised fruit.

## Audience Metaphor

The "fruit" of planting is the harvest months later, not the dirt on your hands today, and no one hands it to you; it comes by the seed''s own working. Phala is the rite''s harvest, delivered by the act''s unseen potency, not by a giver.

## Citations

1. Mīmāṃsā Sūtra 4.3 and 6.1 on phala and svarga -- see [references/mimamsa-sutra.md](../references/mimamsa-sutra.md)
2. Śāstra-dīpikā on the result of enjoined action -- see [references/sastra-dipika.md](../references/sastra-dipika.md)
