Karma Philosophy In Jainism

Author(s): Chandrashekharvijay, Chunilal Vrajlal Modi
Publisher: Kamal Prakashan
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/007016/1

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103 SEGESE S972 KARMA PHILOSOPHY IN M Muni Shri Chandrashekharvijayji

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KARMA PHILOSOPHY IN JAINISM By MUNI SHRI CHANDRASHEKHARVIJAYJI TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH By CHUNILAL VRAJLAL MODY B. A. (Hons)

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Publishers: Kamal Prakashan 5082/3 Second Flr. Opp. Chandra Hotel Gandhi Road, Ratanpole Naka, Ahmedabad-1. Author: Muni Shri Chandrashekhar Vijayji the most humble disciple of His Holiness the Late Revered Acharya Bhagwan Shirmad Vijay Premsureeshwarji Maharaj "Siddhanta Mahodadhi" "Saccharitra Choodamani" Translator: Shri C. V. Mody B. A. (Hons) First Edition English Copies 1250 Year & Date 1st Feb. 1978 All Rights Reserved Printers: Dinesh K. Shah Shri Mahavir Printers 10/270 Gandhi Chowk, Surat.

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BEV, MUNI SHRI CHANDRASHEKHARVIJAYJI MAHARAJ (AUTHOR OF THE BOOK) Rev. Muni shri Chandrashekhar Vijayji is a saint through whose every fibre courses the joy, the elan and the dynamism of saintliness. He is in fact, a saint, inebriated with saintliness. Known as Indravadan in his worldy life, this saint was born on 16th Feb. '34 with a sliver spoon in his mouth, in a rich family, widely known for devotion to religion. His mother was Subhadraben, a deeply pious lady, who while carrying the heavy burden of home affairs, did not miss her religious practices. His father was Kantilal, who while being religious, was deeply attached to his children. His uncle was Sheth Jivatial Purtapshi, a multi-millionaire, who headed a leading business house in shares, bullion and investments. He was deeply attached to religion and took an active and prominent part in the burning religious problems of the day. His house was a rendez-vous of the religiouns leaders of India. Thus from his very chiidbood, Indravadan was brought up in the religious atmosphere and religious practices in vogue in the family. With every passing year, he was advancing in detachment almost unnoticed by anyone. He was attending school, but not to school lessons. Religion engaged the mind of this young boy. He passed his matriculation exmination but the rising crescendo of his detachment was ready to burst the worldly embankments. His mother gave him her willing consent to embrace the saintly life. The love of religion in her at last triumphed over her love for the son. But the father's deep attachment stood a barrier across his goal. The uncle asked him to wait for some time before he would give his consent.

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Mean while the young Indravadan got a severe sad shocking disillusionment, which further whetted his detachment. His father all too suddenly died of heart failure. He saw the evanescence of human life and finally resolved firmly to leave the world for an ascetic life. The uncle's procrastination in consent made the young boy fidgety. He fled from the house and returned only when his uncle assented to his wishes for taking to a saintly life. He was initiated in the saintly life on 15th May 1952 and named Muni Chandrashehar Vijay as a disciple of His Holiness Acharya Dev Shrimad Vijay Prensurishwarji, the head of a large congregation of disciples, a paragon of saintliness, a savant of Karma philosophy, so austere in living yet so simple and candid like a child. Thereafter his worldly sister in her maidenhood, in her teens, followed his footsteps and embraced a saintly life. In the saintly fold, spiritual leanings and talents of this young Muni found full scope for development possessing an unusual retentive memory, he made rapid strides in religious studies. He is an erudite scholar of religion, besides being a gifted speaker and a proific writer. He would write a book of three hundred pages within four days. He is an author of more than a hundred publications. Perhaps, a large number of his writings have still remained unpublished. A monthly journal known as MUKTIDOOT, to which he contributes articles, receives his fostering care. His language is ornate, fascinating, lucid, logical and elevating. He is a fluent speaker. He would draw large audiences, which would at times swell to ten thousand. He has a stentorian voice, which would reach the hearers at the farthest end. His speech is both telling and uplifting. His sermons on the Ramayana are relished by both Jains and non-Jains who form the audience.

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For celebration of the 2500th Nirvan Kalyanak anniversary of Lord Mahavir during the International Year fixed by U. N. O. from 13th November 1974 to 3rd November 1975, the Government of India had set up a Central Committee and the states their local committees. As many of the programmes of these committees were violative of the tenets and principles of Jain religion. His Holiness Acharyadev Shrimad Vijay Ramchandra Shrishwraji, the present head of the congregation, who is widely known for his vast scholarship, enthralling oratory and as a defender of faith, led a movement against the principle of setting up of these committees and their many activities. In support of this movement, Rev. Munishri made Ahmedabad, the storm centre of opposition of the religious minded Jainas by a ceaseless campaing of writings, speeches, meetings, processions etc. He went on a fast as a poignat expression of his soul against the screening of the film of Lord Mahavir on that occasion in the cinema houses. He broke the fast on the on the fourth day to the relief of the entire fourfold congregation in the country when a reliable undertaking for its withdral was forthcoming. Rev. Munishri believes that the demolition of faith in the ancient culture, religion and spritualism of the land, which were the sustaining bases of the society, the state and the people and enthronement in their place of materialism under the British rule and thereafter under independence have begotton moral decadence and excessive fondness for sensual pleasures all round which are the factors at the bottom of the pervassive crisis of character in the country. This is the malady that is corroding the vitals of the society the state and the people. Hence, the revival of spiritualism in this land to its pristine pedestal through the spread of knowledge of religion and the Jain Ramayana has become a burning passion with him. He minces on words. in critcsing political leaders, the authorities of the state, for their misguided steps and policies. 3

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which have contributed to the spiritual downfall of the nation. This has brought several times occasions of anxious concern to his followers. His castigation of the people for their apathy in this respect is no less forthright and hard hitting. As with spirtiual lore, he combines a deep sense of history, seience and international happenings, his sermons are a feast of delight, morally elevating, spiritually uplifting, informative and carry conviction to the audience with telling effect. His renunciation of the riches, his disciplined saintly conduct and immaculate character have become a source of magnetic influence to all sections of the Jains, particularly the younger generation. All what he is, he attributes to the grace and blessings of his late Guru of revered memory C. V. Mody (Translator) Arif Manzil Dahisar Bombay-68 14th November 1977.

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PREFACE Ideem it my good fortune to have the opportunity to translate this book on Karma Philosophy in Jainism written in Gujarati by Rev. Munishri Chandrashekhar Vijayji, into English. There was copious literature in Jain religion on the philosophy of Karma but much of it has been lost with the passage of time. Such elaborate description in depth on the subject as is available in Jain religion is not to be found anywhere else in the religions of the world. Karma Philosophy is thus a unique and distinctive contribution of the Jain thinkers to the religious literatues of the world. This book packs in its small space the quintessence of Karma Philosophy in Jainism, initiating the readers in the salinet features of the mechanism of the operation of the law of Karma. The law of Karma is propounded by Lords Tirthankaras as perceived in omniscience. The last to shed light on this law is the 24th Tirthankara Bhagwan Mahavir. It is an erroneous conception that Jainism is a religion of fatalism. On the contrary it is a religion of activism. Its cardinal theory is that man is the architect of his own destiny. Just as you sow, so shall you reap is a wise saying. Jainism is an illustrious exponent of this theory. Soul and Karma are the two pillars of Jainism. Man is his own ancestor as well as his own heir. What man reaps is the fruit of his own deeds done in the past innumerable births. Good or bad fruits are the reward of past deeds. One cannot expect figs to grow on thistles. Wicked acts like thistles will give piercing thorns of pain. The operation of the law of Karma is manifest in every sphere of life. At the last moment, one gets down from the plane and gives his seat to another. The plane crashes, one who was to travel is saved and one who was not to travel is killed. On a road accident, of the two men going together, one is killed and the other is saved. One intelligent is rotting in

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poverty and one dull minded is wallowing in riches. One innocent is hanged on the gallows on a frumped up charge of murder while the real culprit escapes. In a hospital a patient dies of a dose of poison adminstered by a nurse the mistaken belief that it is the real prescribed medicine. A multimillionaire turns a pauper overnight and vice-versa. So many such strange happenings occur which can only be satisfactorily explained by the operation of the law of Karma. The birth of man in a certain family is not an act of volition but a compulsive act of Karma. Karma determines parents, family, relations, cireumstaness, etc. A child born in a millionaire's family becomes a millionaire from the very birth, whereas a child born in a very poor family starts life as a pauper. The differing cultures in their families make a difference their upbringing. The lineaments, bodily structure, blood and bones, temperament, feelings, thoughts, tastes, desires differ from man to man, and even where two persons are twins. It is difficult to bring all men to the dead level of equality but even if equality in the matter of income and wealth were superimposed, you cannot bring about equality in their tastes, temperaments, thoughts, desires, intellect, education, temperaments of their parents, wives and children etc. So cach man will derive different kinds of happiness or pain according to his differing mental attitudes and states of their overall circumstances and environment arising from Karma The difference is not superimposed but forged by the different kinds of Karmas of different men. Karmas differ from man to man and so long as they differ, inequality in birth, power, status, occupation and in so many other things will continue to rule the lives of men. Only when the soul is freed from the bondage of Karma, there is equality in released souls both in regard to perfect purity and enjoyment of four kinds of virtues in their infinities. One should not, therefore be misled by the tall talks that are current in the world about ushering inequality amongst manind. In the matter of material resources, man mostly reaps the fruits of past Karmas. If the past karmas are bad, even with

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not get wealth. If the past karmas are good, with little effort, all activism, man will he will get more. But quite a contrary spectacle presents. Man pins his faith in the principle of activism in the matter of mundane recources which in fact are governed by past destiny and remains passive, indifferent and even hostile in the matter of religion which ensures spiritual progress to liberation and until it is obtained confers even excellent kinds of material happiness for the future. If faith cannot be had in the purifying, healing and uplifting touch of religion, this much religion at icast helps that a man of religion bears his adversity with cheer and recoils from sin to drive it away, whereas a man withou Iuligion will hold others to blame for his misfortunes and commit many evil deeds to boot to and his misery. While Jainism believes that man reaps the fruits of his cwn Karmas, it at the same time asserts that the decrees of fate written by the bondage of past karmas are not in all cases unalterable. Man has the power to modify, moderate and even to nullify the effects of all kinds of karmas except the ones called Nikachit, that is those that have been too closely fused with the souls. Jainism, therefore, exhorts that by remaining engaged in good thoughts and by resort to good deeds, one can transform the nature of the pain producing Karmas into the one of happiness producing karmas. Similarly, it warns that as a result of evil thoughts and evil deeds, the nature of happiness producing Karmas would be changed into the one of pain producing Karmas. Man thus by his own deeds makes or mars his own destiny. But such a golden opportunity for a wholesome reorientation is available only in human life, which is so rare and transient. It is for this reason that Jain religion lays stress on the dedication of human life to the pursuit of religion. Evidently, were not such transformation in the nature of Karma possible, none would have attained salvation. By

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means of austerites, penance, good thoughts etc, one is able to demolish the effect of evil Karmas during their dormant state before they manifest their effect by explosion. But the dismal phenomenon that is visible is that man wants happiness which is the fruit of religion but abhors practising religion. He does not want pain but does sin merrily which is the progenitor of pain. The reason is that under the influence of delusion, man envisages happiness in material resources which in fact is brittle, fugitive, short-lived and dependent. But he does not work for real happiness which is abiding, permanent, perfect, imperishable and unadulterated with pain and lies latent in the soul. This state of the soul, which is the status of Godhood is unfolded when it is freed from any vestige of Karma, This book delineates the modus operandi of exterminating the evil forces of karma and thus attaining to the status of Godhood. May I lastly add that is it quite an arduous task to reproduce the elegance and dignity of the original through the refractory medium of a foreign language. However, I have tried my best to make the English translation as faithful to the original as possible. I tender my apologies to the Rev. Munishri and the readers for any distortion or deviation in meaning in translation. in English from the orignial or the scriptural teaching. Arif Manzil Dahisar Bombay-68 14 th November-1977 8 C. V. Mody

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CONTENTS Chap Page 1 I II III IV V VI ODDITIES AND ECCENTRICITIES OF KARMA ATOM SOUL, WORLD AND KARMA CAUSES OF BONDAGE OF KARMA BONDAGE OF KARMA ENERGY OF MATTER VII MODERN SCIENCE & LAW OF KARMA VIII NATURES OF SOUL-ORIGINAL AND ASSUMED 62 IX EMANCIPATION FROM THE BONDAGE 64 OF KARMA

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CHAPTER I ODDITIES AND ECCENTRICITIES OF KARMA Friends, I would like to present before you several episodes. for your consideration and judgemant. Just ponder over them. "How did that happen?", "Who did it?". Here is a big city. In one of its quiet spots, there is a society of enormously rich people. Every member of this society. is steeped in the enjoyment of wealth and pleasures and is. blatantly disdainful of others. Ah! even a Tomy dog of the Saheb has the good fortune to pass a merry life. Once a very poor man of the city happens to come sauntering in this locality in the hope of getting something. That poor soul might be hungry for last several days. His sunken stomach is its silent witness. His body is a bundle of bones, without flesh and blood. A human soul, one of our own species, he is absolutely reduced to abject poverty and misery. His feet are tottering, the head on his neck is shaking. With slow steps he reached the gate of a compound. An Arab watchman kept guard at the gate, lest some miscreant might get in. "One who is neither a relative nor rich" was the only definition of a miscreant in the lexicon of these Sahebs. The Arab shouted, "Get out from here, nothing could be had here". "Where should I go? There is a limit to one's patience. My patience is exhausted", murmured the beggar within himself. He sat down resting his hands on the temples. His eyes. were reeling, giddiness was creeping. Death was advancing before his eyes. He laughed, "Surely, death might have, perhaps, less bitterness in it than life". One cannot say, if per chance, something sweet was hidden in its depths. 1

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Seeing the shadow of death just hovering, past memories came crowding in his mind. He remembered his birth. Birth at a multi-millionaire father, Childhood! How it passed in sweet fondlings! Youth! Ah! What a surfeit of pelf and pleasures! And my conduct, how extremely bad and licentious! Myself, an adept in all misconducts. What daily new rounds, daily new pictures, daily honeymoons with lovely damsels. Then came flashing before his eyes the time of his fortyfifth year. He heaved a long sigh. He saw the shining sun of wealth going on its westward journey to set. Indulgence in wine, woman and wealth had begun gradually to sap his strength. His domestic happiness was dissipated. His health was shattered. A multi-millionaire had turned a beggar with the quirk of destiny. He was forsaken by all. Sucked of vigour and bereft of wealth, the poor soul was seen piteously begging for a slice of bread. Darling of all, a beloved friend of many, father of four sons, once befriended by many, but now deserted by all. The cinema film of his life happenings passed before his eyes. Instantly, a severe blow was hit on his back. Reddened by anger, the Arab spoke, "You villain! the time for the Saheb to come in, is already due. You wretch, by your sins will be ruined. Are you getting out or not?" But the beggar decided to stay put is idiomater and should be kept. (both words should be separate) where he was. He knew not where to go. Death came dancing nearer and nearer. "You fool, will you not get up?" saying thus, the Arab dealt a heavy blow on his head with a big stick. The beggar rolled down on the ground piteously shouting. The head was fractured, the skull was split. Blood flowed out and formed a pool. 2

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Kites and vultures came down whirling their way through the sky. The Arab went away abusing. Birds made a merry feast. Dogs got a rich repast. Three days passed away. All that remained of him was a mere skeleton. Second Episode : There was a tender girl of twelve. Beautiful beyond compare, highly intellectual, perfectly polite. She was a darling of all. Once a tiny spot appeared on her face. It went on enlarging. Hands and feet were then covered with such spots. Like the flood of river, they rapidly spread over her body. Leprosy took possession of her whole body. Nobody looks at her. Even in simple matters, she is spurned and scorned by all. Happy dreams hooked on the hanger of time are all dashed to the ground. Physicians, doctors, homeopathists, allopathists, and a tribe of them are in plenty on the earth. The girl's father has riches. He spends them lavishly to cure the malady. But nothing helps. Disliked by all, spurned by all, this girl sits in a sequestered corner of the house. She simply lives in the absence of death intervening. Third Episode : By hard labour, sweat and tears, a father puts by some savings for his only son. From these savings, he provides for the education of the son. Old age imposes an oppressive strain on his body. His body refuses to do any kind of work. But if he sits idly at home, the stark reality confronting him is that the whole family will face starvation. He forces his unwilling body to work with great strength of will. He drags his body to work in the world of labour with great persuasion to himself.

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His life hangs by the tenuous string of hope. The hope. that the son will finish education tomorrow and will bring a handsome income. There will be then peace in the house. His. mother and I will then heave a sigh of relief calmly. But this boy going for education gets lost. A girl of a multi-millionaire becomes infatuated with his looks. While the parents do not get enough to eat, the boy makes merry with parties and feasts in hotels. Co-education, picture houses and novel reading spoil his life, mind and body. He looks on his parents as rustics. The girl, with whom he is in love, appears to him, as his sole bene factor. Nowhere, except in the company of this girl, he finds happiness and solace. One day he forsook his old parents. He left home leaving behind a note, "You will not get my face to see anymore. I am leaving the house to live an extremely happy life. I am highly grateful to you for rearing me up and nourishing me so far". The parents faint on reading the note. It is the money. that brings a man to his senses. But there is utter lack of it here. Who will bring them to senses? Who will rush to succour the poor? The cold wind is coming rushing. It awakens them. What else is to be done on waking? They give vent to heart-rending cries. On whose hope should they now live? On whose support? Of what use is now living? It is good that the son got happiness. With their last heartfelt blessings to the son, the parents commit suicide by swallowing acid. Fourth Episode: Here is a college, where a girl and a boy friends meet. The girl and the boy are attracted towards each other, the boy by the beauty of the girl and the girl by the riches of the boy. Detesting the wishes of their parents, both join in tie of marriage. They pass their days happily. Years thus rolled by and a decade was added to another, Both are happy in all ways. paining and gnawing their hearts, happiness to cinders. 4 But there is one secret anxiety such as to burn all their

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All these years, they are without an issue. They consulted a spate of expert doctors and tried all suggested means and remedies. The husband gave every freedom to the wife in this matter. Fie to this fierce longing ! No effort was spared but none succeeded. Utter disappointment and blank despair stared them. The fragrance of their envisaged happiness is shattered and its light is blown out. A lighted match falls in the midst of their world of mirth. Fifth Episode : Brief but brimming with moral. There is a stately mansion worth rupees two lacs. It is for sale. A customer offers two lacs. The deal is completed and the owner of the building puts the cheque of two lacs in the safe. At nightfall, the building is on fire. Within eight hours the whole building is burnt to ashes. The original owner laughs, the new buyer weeps bitter tears on seeing the entire earnings of two lacs of his life thus lost. Friends, keep all these five episodes before your eyes and say how they happened and what active force is operating behind them. Is this due to the distortion of intellect or misdirected effort ? is not some imperceptible force working behind them ? How did a boy splitting logs of wood, happen to become Hitler of Germany ? How did he come to acquire the fiery strength to shake the big powers like Britain and America ? How was it that a boy fired with the ambition to turn out a famous painter become Emperor Napolean ? Who rolled to dust and frustrated the dreams, designs and adventures of these two mighty men of the world? Who smashed to smithereens their prowess and might? How was it that Omkarnath Thakur, the uncrowned king in the world of song, was reduced to a beggarly condition ?

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How was it that the stout and sturdy wrestler Gama got emaciated ? How did the illustrious Prime Minister of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri, die of heart-failure in Russia, the centre of science ? Why no remedy came to his ready help? How was it that the beloved President of America, J. F. Kennedy was assassinated in open day light? Why, despite all necessary precautions and arrangements for his protection, negligence occurred at the crucial moment? Why was Mahatma Gandhi assassinated by Nathuram Godse? Why did Godse's intellect get distorted for this assassination ? Who effected this distortion ? Why did America throw an atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which burnt out lacs of innocent men and women standing then and there? Who taught the barbarous science of living by killing and spreading the cult of capitalism for living ? Friends, will you kindly answer all these questions? Your every answer will pose a fresh question. It would be an endless challenging chain of questions and answers. How did that happen ? Who did it? Give answer to that. Was it done by God ? No! No ! God is all merciful. He will never do such a thing. Does it mean that all this happens without a cause ? No, no. There is no act without a cause. This is a universal axiom. It brooks no exception. There must be some cause, somewhere, overtor covert behind any act. Well then, I wiil attempt a satisfactory answer to all these questions. But friends, for the proper understanding of the subject, the assumption of the following two fundamental premises is an essential pre-condition. (1) God is not the Creator of the world and (2) There is an independent substance like soul which is

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conscious, beginningless, indestructible and imperishable. This seeming exterior body is not soul. What resides in it is soul. Body is mortal while soul is immortal. On the expiry of the body, soul leaves it and forms a new body. Some souls by religious disciplines make a spiritual ascent and attain omniscience even in an embodied condition. In short, this world is eternal, soul is eternal. To comprehend these matters more fully, the readers are advised to peruse the two books on (1) Philosophy of Soul and (2) Can there be God as the Creator of the World? On this occasion, we put off the discussion of this matter as it is likely to lead to the digression of the whole subject. It is enough to bear in mind that these are the two basic premises of our subsequent superstructure. Friends, any happening in the world has definitely at its root some cause. What is it? It is nothing else but "KARMA". What is KARMA? To know this subject certain basic principles have to be properly apprehended. Remember, no edifice can stand without a foundation. 7

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CHAPTER II ATOM Verily, there are two substances (entities) existing in the world. Only, these two existed in the past and in the future only these two will exist. These are - life and matter. Life is variously spoken of as soul, consciousness, purusha. Because of life in the body, we can walk, move about, eat, drink, think, write, speak etc. Without life in the body, none of these activities is possible. When soul leaves the body, the person is said to have died. Do you find then any activity in the body? No! The mouth of a mighty orator at that time cannot utter a word. The hand of a great writer is not then able to pen a word. The brain of a great savant in that condition, does not function the least. Because, the motive power, working behind all these activities has left. What then is matter? All that is without life is matter XA body, a building, clothes, a writing pen, books, currency notes, all theso are matters.) The number of sentient beings in the cosmos is infinite. In the world of matter infinite are the forms of matter. Matter is of two kinds, destructible and indestructible. The matter which we perceive and which comes into our use is all destructible. Besides, there is a vast mass of matter which is also destructible.) Let us now discuss about matter which is indestructible. Suppose you have got a very big stone as big as the Westminster Abbey of Britain. It is split into two, these two into four, these four into eight and in this way it is split into infinite small parts as little as the ants. Take this small part and again split it into two, these two into four and proceed with

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this process further and furthei. lnen split this tiny part with the latest invented machine. Then split it again. Eventually you will reach a stage when it will not be possible for you to split the tiniest part. The scientists designate what cannot be split into two as an atom. An identical description of a'om is extant in the Jain scriptures.) The scientists call it an atom, which cannot be divided into two by its latest mechanical process, whereas the Jain philosophers propound that, that the particle which is subject to mechanical process and can be seen by a microscope, is capable of being further split up into parts times without number. What the scientists once designated as an atom, has been sundered into two and from these have been discovered electron, proton and progyton. According to the viewpoint of the Ja'n philosophers, even this pregyion is not the ultimate indestructible material stuff. Because it contains infinite parts and can be divided infinite times. Only when further division becomes impossible in the sight of the omniscients, the last divided molecule is called atom. This atom is indestructible because it is not divisible. It is neither subject to change by fire. The stormy waves of the ocean are helpless to destroy it. An atom bomb of two hundred megaton power will fail to have any impact on it. Impossible it is to destroy the indestructible. This universe is formed out of such infinite indestructible atoms. The Karmas, about which we wish to discuss here, are a kind of conglomeration of certain kinds of material particles. It is for this purpose that we have undertaken the consideration of atoms. How many storeys does the spacious building standing before your eyes contain ? Fourteen. How many rooms does each storey contain ? Twenty, Of how many walls is each room made? Of four walls. Well. How many bricks does each wall contain ? Thousands. Well. How many sands does each brick contain ? Infinite.

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Each sand contains infinite small sands. Each small sand contains infinite particles. Every fibre of your bush shirt contains infinite particles. Every part of the one rupee note which is in your pocket contains infinite particles. In short, any visible substance in the world is made of conglomerations of infinite corpuscles. The building means a storehouse of incalculable conglomerations of particles. A youthful damsel means a storehouse of innumerable aggregates of infinite particles. Money, books, in short, all materials have the same connotation. It should be remembered that a pile of sands is not the building of the Westminster Abbey. But the bricks are made of piles of sands, walls of heaps of bricks, rooms of walls and the storeys of collections of rooms and in this manner, the said building is built of hundred and twenty storeys. Similarly, mere conglomerations of particles are not bricks, walls, rooms or the building. But the combinations of separate atoms form spatial units and out of these spatial units are formed, sands, stones, bricks, buildings etc. How does one atom combine with another? How could infinite atoms come to be concentrated into one spatial unit ? Is it necessary to have any special rules or conditions for one atom to combine with another ? Let us now discuss all these issues. The Jain thinkers propound that the chief characteristics of matter are colour, odour, taste and touch. Colour is of five kinds, black, blue, red, yellow and white. Smells are of two kinds, agreeable and disagreeable. Taste is also of five kinds, bitter, stringent, sweet, sour and pungent. Touch is of eight kinds, sticky, rough, cold, hot, smooth, hard, heavy and light.. Every atom possesses one of the five colours, one out of two smells, and one out of five tastes, but out of the eight 10

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kinds of touch, it possesses a pair of touch, one either sticky or rough and the other hot or cold. In this manner, every atom has two kinds of touch. Atom has no dimensions of length, breadth, depth and height. When one atom combines with another, the instrumental cause is not colour, smell and taste but only its touch. In a tub full of water, drop a particle of blue colour and subsequently go on gradually adding one particle after another of this colour in the water and you will find the bluish colour of the water changing with every addition of a particle. When the first particle was dropped, the colour was very light blue but with the addition of the millionth particle, it became dark blue and with the addition of the one hundred millionth particle, it still became darker blue. Thus with the drop of every additional particle, the emerging blue assumed a colour different from the preceding and succeeding ones. It is thus proved that there are hundreds, nay, millions, nay, infinite varieties of blue colour. In this manner, the other types of colours, red, yellow etc two kinds of smell, five types of taste and eight types of touch, all these would have infinite divisions. So one kind of sticky touch would be of infinite varieties. Equally so, one kind of rough touch would be of infinite varieties. Similarly, all eight types of touch would have infinite varieties. It has been indicated above, that in the combination of one atom with another, colour, smell and taste are not determining causes. The efficient cause is merely the touch of the two atoms. Every atom has two kinds of touch, sticky or rough and hot or cold. But in the union of two atoms, the operative cause is their touch, sticky and rough. Let us divide infinite varieties of sticky touch into various categories, such as, one degree sticky, two degrees sticky, three degrees sticky, and so on till infinite degrees sticky. In 11

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like manner, rough touch would have infinite divisions, one degree, two degrees, three degrees, infinite degrees rough. Some atoms would be one degree sticky, some others fifty degrees sticky, some atoms would be five degrees rough, some others would be infinite degrees rough. Thus we would have two kinds of atoms, sticky and rough. It is a rule that two atoms of the same group can combine only if there is a difference between the touch of these two atoms of at least two degrees. Thus an atom one degree sticky can combine with another atom, three or four or more degrees sticky. In like manner, one atom one degree rough would unite with another. three, four or more degrees rough. In the combination of atoms of two opposite qualities, the rule is that these atoms combine even if the qualities of both are of the same degrees or different degrees. Thus one atom six degrees sticky can combine with an atom six or eight degrees rough. The above rule is subject to one exception that an atom one degree sticky cannot combine with another one degree rough It would thus be understood that every atom has not the fitness to be united with another. There are infinite single atoms in the world which have not been conjoined with another. Such single atoms form formidable separate units. Let us call this group, Unit No. 1. There are such units of two atoms infinite in number. There are also such units of three atoms, four, five, six even of incalculable and even infinite atoms. Each group is infinite in number. Beginning with the unit of one atom, we have reached the group of infinite shatial units, each of which has atoms infinite in number. All such units, groups, conglomerations and their molecules are never of use in the world to any being. No material thing is formed of them. Because the grossness of these conglomerations is greater than that of those which are 12

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required to form a material. We would designate all these groups by number one. In this manner we have to reach the group number 16, because particles of this group only have the fitness to form Karmas./ In order to reach the group No. 16, we have to start with the group No. 1. All the existing spatial units which comprise the particles which are contained in the last conglomeration of the group No. 1 with the addition of one will form the first line of the second group. We have thus to go on forming lines with the addition of one in the last unit of the preceding unit until the line infinite is reached. This will be the second group of the infinite lines of units of atoms. In like manner adding one more more particle to these contained in the last conglomeration of the preceding group we have to form groups. one after another till the sixteenth is reached, The number of particles of the particles of the sixteenth group are immensely greater than those of the first group and the spatial units of the succeeding groups get more and more minute and occupy lesser and lesser space. Of the sixteenth group, odd numbers of conglomerations namely 1, 3, 5, 7 have no use for any purpose, whereas even numbers of conglomerations have their use for various purposes. This group No. 16 is formed of infinite spatial units and each. of them contains infinite particles. These These are called called stocks of Karmas. Let us now come to the main topic. The stocks of this group are not life and contain no like. It has a Iready been indicated before that what is without life is called matter. This stock of Karmas is matter and not life.

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CHAPTER III SOUL, WORLD AND KARMA That which is consciousness is life. Soul by nature is absolutely and perfectly pure. It is spotless. But only the soul that gets deliverance from all feelings of attachment and aversion through religious disciplines and this attains a perfectly purified state, does not attract Karma of the sixteenth group. (But the soul that is agitated by the disturbing waves of attachment and aversion continuously attracts Karma.) If we give the analogy to the feelings of attachment and aversion of a magnet, the corpuscles of Karma would be likened to the particles of iron. The particles of iron would be attracted and get attached only to a magnet. The souls that exterminate the feelings of attachment and aversion lose the power of attraction and hence the particles of Karma never cling to them. These souls are the liberated or released souls (God). But our subject matter of discussion now is embodied souls These souls have in them innate powers of attachment and aversion for attraction and it is due to the operation of these twin forces that the molecules of Karma continuously stick to them. Not a moment passes, without some particle of Karma uniting with the soul. Every soul has its mind engaged in some thought at least. The activity of speech may be occasional but the body is continuously engaged in the act of breathing, hard or slow. After all, the act of not doing anything good is active. Thus, some activity either by mind, speech or body is being continuously performed. The operative forces that continuously attract the particles of Karma on the one hand are the feelings of attachment and aversion and on the other, the triple activities of mind, speech and body. 14

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Just as the sun is covered by the cloud, by these Karmas are suppressed and obscured the attributes of the infinite light of knowledge, infinite power of perception, infinite valour and infinite happiness that the soul possesses. The particles of Karma of the sixteenth group are attracted by the good or bad activities of the triumvirate of mind, speech and body and get fused with the soul. Hence the molecules that are attracted by these activities are called Karma. Soul has never been created. It existed in the past forever. If we believe the soul as being created, a creator of this act has also to be believed. If we believe the creator of this act as God, then God must have also his creator, and this creator also a preceding creator and this process will stretch back ad infinitum. So to find a solution to this conundrum, it has been said that God is the uncreated cause of creation. God is thus posited permanent and everlasting. Now the question would arise, "Does not this involve the belief of the permanancy of the soul and God as the creator to boot?". Is it not then better to believe the soul as permanent so that it might dispense with the belief of God as the creator to boot? Besides, there is one other argument to rebut the above theory. If the soul was at all created, it could only be quite pure and sinless at the time of creation. Why should it have then to suffer the pangs of cold and heat, the aches of birth, death, old age, disease, sorrow etc. Could a pure soul have to suffer? And if for no reason, a pure soul is subject to suffering, the religious processes and disciplines for the complete purification and liberation of the soul become meaningless. Because the religious practices of renunciation, fasts, etc are meant to attain freedom from the aches of birth and death and death if after the acquisition of the perfectly purified state of the soul through the mechanics of the above processes, a soul 15

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has to be reborn in the world and undergo the same pangs of birth, death, why should it then invite the sufferings of renunciation and fasts discarding all visible sensual happiness It is thus a decided fact that if a pure soul were created, it could never be thrown in the whirlpool of worldly sufferings. Hence, the soul that is subject to the aches of birth etc could not be pure and therefore our proposition that soul was never created is proved. Moreover, when a being took birth he was impure. He was associated with the feelings of attachment and aversion. Besides, his birth was due to the cause of Karma particles (which will be discussed hereafter). Where did he acquire these feelings of love and hatred and the pile of those Karma particles? There could be only one answer to this question that before this birth, this embodied soul had a previous birth where he collected the heap of Karma particles. Here the same question arises. Where did he acquire this stock of Karma particles which led to the previous birth? There could be the same answer that this pile would have been collected in a birth previous to that. In this manner, you shall have thus to posit the existence of a birthgiving Karma to every previous birth and also the existence. of a previous incarnation as the generator of every succeeding birth giving Karma. Like the Q. E. D. of Euclid, it is thus proved that soul is not created by any being. Soul is eternal and permanent. This automatically settles another baffling question that the world where embodies souls pass from cycles of births and deaths was not created at all by anyone. It is permanent and eternal. If the world is to be believed to have been created, it leads to the enigmatic query, where did the embodied souls pass through. incessant rounds of births and deaths? With this, the third thing is proved that the union of Karma which is the entity. responsible for the creation of its mundane existence is eternal and permanent. 16

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In short, soul, matter and Karma are proved eternally permanent. Undoubtedly, Karma and matter are subject to incessant modifications, the disappearance of an existing modification giving place to the emergence of a new one. Thus the flow of the stream is incessant and uninterrupted. We will now consider what causes the Karma particles to get attached to the soul. In short, it may be said that the bondage of Karma is due to the feelings of attachment and aversion and the activities of mind, word and body. We will now exa nine this matter rather more minutely.

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CHAPTER IV CAUSES OF BONDAGE OF KARMA We shall now consider in this chapter the causes which operate for the continuous union of Karma particles with the soul. Lords Jinas, through extraordinary self-abnegation and rigorous austerities of renunciation and fasts, completely annihilated Karmic coverings obscuring the attributes of the soul. With the removal of these impurities of Karma, the Lords obtained illumination of omniscience. Just as many things are reflected in a mirror at a time, in this Illumination the Lords apprehended all the cosmic things and phenomena of all times. and places with all their infinite qualities, modes and aspects. In this transcedental vision, the Lords apprehended all kinds of sentient beings and perceived that all the embodied souls had inherent latent potency to reach the same exalted state of the soul which they had attained. Every embodied soul by nature was perfectly pure as was the supreme soul. But this divinity of the soul was obscured and polluted by particles, of Karma and that was the reason why souls journeyed through incessant series of births and deaths and got enmeshed in the so-called happiness of wealth, woman and other mundane materials. The Lords also apprehended the causes which propel the Karmic particles to fuse with the soul and defile its inherent. perfect purity. The compassionate Lords have propounded these four causes as responsible for the bondage of Karma with the soul; (1) Lack of unquestioning fidelity to truth in the soul (false) belief or Mithyatva). (2) Absence of right conduct in life (Avirti). (3) Unhealthy vibrations of passions in the soul (Kashaya ). (4) Triple activities of thought, word and deed (Yoga). 18

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Friends, if you wish more enlightenment about the four operating causas elaborately, you should refer to other books which deal with these subjects since, we propose to discuss and explain these matters here in brief. Friends, you might be well aware that there are two entities, truth and untruth existent in the world and that too since the dawn of day. Untruth is having its tumultuous play in the world since beginningless time. Ever since then, against it is pitched in non-violent struggle the beneficial counter force of ttuth. The contest between these two forces to gain ascendency is going on since eternal time. Relatively though untruth always dominates, at varying times truth gains in strength. In the fight between these two forces at the human level, few heroic souls are able to triumph over untruth and realise truth, which is a stepping stone to the path of emancipation. When self-realisation awakens, the soul is convinced that there exists a state of the soul known as liberation, which is free from the aches of birth, old age, death, is untouched by the excruciating agonies of diseases, is not marred by family disputes and tainted by selfish discords about woman and wealth and also by concepts of illusory happiness envisaged in their association. Birth, old age, death, are fetters to the soul. The soul experiences slavery in these bondages. In case the soul gets happiness, it is not real but chimerical like the happiness of a man under house-arrest. But it is a matter of profound regret that being habituated to corporeal conditions since beginningless time, it has become impossible for the soul to differentiate between the happiness of a fettered state and a state of freedom. Like a spider weaving the snares of a cobweb around it by its own efforts, a worldly soul, due to attachment towards untruth and aversion towards truth and ignorance of spiritual entities, weaves for itself the coils of birth and death. What a blind bias for untruth? What a cruel mockery of the truth of a state of release !

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The soui is thus since beginningless time entangled in the destructive Gordion Knot of strong attachment for untruth and inveterate aversion for truth due to false belief. A conscious partiality for truth never dawned in its depths. In such a state, Karmic molecules have continued to rush in torrents and adhere to the soul and pollute its nature.) Friends, it is thus obvious that a firm partiality for truth is the mainspring of real happiness. Partiality means inclination or leaning of the heart. It does not mean implementation in conduct of what is believed to be true. Conduct may perhaps be divorced from truth but at the same time, it is essential that the fidelity of the soul should remain anchored to truth. Right conduct is a matter of action, whereas, partiality for truth is a matter of faith. But alas, there was not the requisite striving on the part of the soul for the acquisition of truth. Instead, it continued in its unrestrained indulgence in false conduct and furthermore enthroned untruth in heart and believed it as right and admirable to boot. But a time for the wholesome transformation of the heart of a worldly soul comes. Luckily, he comes into contact with a real preceptor. The time for fructifying such noble contact has also ripened. He lends an intent and patient ear to the preachings of the religious teacher and takes them to heart. He apprehends fully what is untruth and truth. His conscience is stirred and the hold of untruth in his heart is shaken. He becomes a staunch advocate of truth. His heart is purified and transformed. He becomes spiritually enlightened. The life of one whose heart is transformed gets also transformed. If life is to be transformed, the sine qua non is the transformation of heart. It means that the heart of the soul who becomes the upholder of truth gets transformed and this powerfully exerts a wholesome influence on his life and under this influence he gradually discards false conduct and incorporates 20

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right conduct in lite in an increasing measure. Eventually his life becomes a consecration to conduct of truth. Transformation of heart inevitably leads to a quick transformation of life. But, friends, it often happens that the transformation of heart is not reflected in the transformation of life. A combination of circumstances and mental tendencies offer constant obstacles in the transformation of life. It is a common experience that despite a lively living faith in truth in the heart, its implementation in practice so often is hard to achieve. This is a very unbearable state. It gives acute mental agony to the souls who find a gulf yawing between their faith and conduct. It gives no small pain to the soul, when faith awakened for truth in the heart, is not incorporated in conduct. Liko a fish that without water tosses to and fro and is restless, such souls are fidgety at heart for want of conduct wedded to truth in life. Let me give you an illustration. A man is habituated to smoking cigarettes for the last thirty years. At the age of eighty, he happens to come into contact with an American doctor, who convinces him of the dreadful nature of this habit and identifies it as the potential cause of cancer. This talk profoundly appeals to the smoker. But unfortunately he is unable to renounce smoking. This bad habit, being very old, has struck deep roots in his soul. His physical condition is so much inured to this habit that if he does not smoke, he would feel giddiness in brain and will have no free motion. But what is to be done now? Such a man cannot control smoking. The fatal disease of cancer is staring him in the face. The very thoughts of physical ailments make him restless and uneasy. No doubt, he brings home a packet of Panama cigarettes but takes out a cigarette from it with a shaking hand. He lights the cigarette but falteringly and places it tremblingly in the mouth. His heart is convulsed by the gloomy foreboding of the fatal disease of cancer He feels helpless before the force of habit. 21

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Friends, you have realised that even after conversion of heart, this smoker is not able to transform life. How unhappy and distressing becomes the mentality of the man caught in the clutches of circumstances ! Here is a man who became a firm believer in the hard truth of non-smoking of cigarettes. Yet he was not able to embody this truth in conduct. It means that for the souls that sincerely become staunch partisans of truth, the gate (hole ) of the first cause for the influx of the putrid stream of Karmic particles becomes closed and consequently to that extent this corrupting stream is stopped from entering the reservoir of the souls. And thereafter when truth comes to be translated into practice and the life begins * to be transformed, you can well imagine what immense joy it gives to these souls. The hole of the second number is rather big from which in absence of right conduct, the polluting flow of Karmic particles is rushing in the soul. This hole also is being filled upto the extent right conduct is incorporated in life. The complete implementation of right conduct means the complete closure of this hole. But for the souls who inspite of being firm adherents of truth are not able to incorporate it in conduct, only the first gate is closed but the second remains open. But the imbalance between right faith and right conduct does not last long. Sooner or later, the time arrives when the faith imbedded in the heart is actualised in conduct. We have discussed two causes which are responsible for the attraction and assimilation of the Karma particles with the soul. (Let us now come to the third cause. It is the unhealthy surging vibrations of passions in the soul.) These stormy vibrations continuously arise in the souls, who are not equipped with the exalted practices of fast, renunciation etc. At times, these upsurging vibrations assume 22

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dangerous forms. As otherwise, usually in the mild form they are always there in the soul. The saints who have renounced the world and are passing through the preliminary or the secondary stage of spiritual exercises of fast, renunciation etc., are also subject to the inroads of these passions. Lord Jina has depicted the fourfold nature of these passions : (i) Fury of anger (ii) Outbursts of conceit (iii) Frauds of deceit (iv) Greed of power, wealth and fondness for woman, body etc. These four passions hold sovereignty over men, beasts and nature. The dreadul dacoits, extremely rich people, highly learned persons, rulers are subject to their all pervasive sway. They dwell even in an ant and also in the world of saints upto a certain stage.; v Even in saints are found a trace of mild feeling of anger at an unpleasant occurrence, a taint of ordinary kind of pride for knowledge, spiritual practices of fasts and detachment, a faint fleeting desire to put on appearances by appropriate expressions of feelings and postures of body of a highly developed spiritual state, which in fact is non-existent and a feeling of attachment for devotees and disciples. Yet not a single tremor of passion could be seen in the saints who have reached an exalted spiritual state. Mind well, these vibrations of a mild character are also very ruinous to the soul. When these vibrations get excited, they overthrow even a saint who has reached a high stage of spiritual development. This is the third cause for the putrid Karmic matter to roll over the soul. It so happens that at times even good and healthy Karmic water flows in. Bacause on occasions, passions of anger etc. have to be willfully feigned for achieving laudable ends. As for example, the exhibition of anger by the teacher for driving out laziness from the student. 23

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But such wholesome and praiseworthy vibrations are rather rare. Let us now examine the fourth cause. Karmic corpuscles are attracted by the activities of mind speech and body and stick to the soul. Just as there are two kinds of vibrations, good and bad, wholesome and harmful, so also these activities can be classified as good and bad, beneficial and deleterious. The mind can think good of another; the speech can be pleasant and truthful and the body can show good behavious towards others. The Karmas which bind the soul as a result of good activities of this triplicity bring happiness to the soul at the time of their fruition.) Friends, we have examined four causes for the inflow of Karma in the soul. Like the pipes that carry water to the reservoir, the four causes are conduit pipes attached to the soul through which Karmic particles flow in. The water of Karmic particles stream gushing from the four pipes. Just as the soul is marching ahead on the spiritual plane towards liberation from the thraldom of Karma, the pipes get more and more choked up. It is the first pipeline that foremost gets closed and then second, third, fourth lines follow in order. When all the four pipelines get closed, not a single particle of Karmic water is able to make its way in the reservoir of the soul. The old Karmic water that had accumulated in the soul gets dried up by the warm sunshine of fast, penance, renunciation and other spiritual practices. The soul then attains release from the bondage of Karma.) The state of the soul free from any contact of Karma is the unfoldment of its highest status of Godhead or liberation. With the removal of all Karmic coverings, the effulgent light of omniscience shines out. Friends, in order to remove the entire batallions of Karma cleaving to the soul, not allowing a single particle to stay behind, two methods should be adopted to achieve this end. 24

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(1) We should prevent the fresh influx of Karma and (2) Annihilate the sfock of Karma that has stuck to the soul. By giving analogy of a reservoir to the soul, we wish to consider two things. The pipelines attached to the soul are the channels for the putrid Karmic water to rush in. But if we block the entrance of the pipelines, that would stop the new inflow. Thereafter the sunshine of fhe practices of fasts, penance and other religious austerities will generally dry up the dirty water accumulated in the past in the reservoir of the soul. When an army invades a city, what happens is that initially a certain force makes its way into the city taking advantage of the negligence and unpreparedness of the citizens. But when the actual fighting breaks out, as a first step in the strategy, the defenders hold up the invading force outside at the gates and thus prevent it from entering the city and then take steps to wipe out the intruders. This tactic helps to gain victory. Similarly by adoption of the above two-fold device, we can plan the destruction of the entire army of Karmic particles. Friends, when shall we bring requisite conversion in the heart for liking the truth and standing by the truth? When shall we convert our life by actualising that truth in conduct? And when shall we calm the strife of the above four passions tormenting the soul ? And thereafter by actively pursuing wholly beneficial activities of mind, speech and body, when shall we reach a state of surcease of this trinity and attain emancipation ? When shall that most holy and auspicious moment full of blessedness and bliss arrive ? OKO 25

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CHAPTER V BONDAGE OF KARMA Friends, let us proceed a step further. We have already examined the causes which impel Karmic particles to stick to the soul. It has already been explained that there is no independent entity like the agency of God which dispenses unhappiness, happiness etc. to human beings. Certainly, God is an object of service and ideal of attainment. But He is not the Architect of the world. The question then arises, how are we to account for the diversities and disabilities visible in worldly souls ? By whom are the latter subjected to woe and joy, birth, death, disease, sorrow etc ? The omniscient Lord Jina ordains that all these occurrences are the wondrous work of Karma. In the technological parlance of the present day, it may be said that Karmas are self-propelled automatons. In unifying with the soul, they settle down in an ordered arrangement. Thereafter, they function automatically every moment. When Karmas stick to the soul, they get assimilated with it like water with milk. At the time of this fusion, four states of Karmic particles are determined. The bondage of Karma with the soul means that the soul gets bound in a fourfold manner by Karma. In a general sense, bondage means the determination of the quadruple states of Karma that bind the soul and on the basis of this meaning, we proceed further. With the adherence of particules of Katma to the soul, their four states are automatically determined (1) the nature of these particles, (2) their duration (3) their strength in awarding fruit and (4) their quantity ) In the determination of the nature of Karmic particles adhering to the soul, the principal role is played by the power 26

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of motivation that causes such adherence. Suppose a man is very rich but at the same a miser equally. A poor beggar approaches this rich man at his bungalow for help but the latter does not listen to his entreaties but spurns him and kicks him out. This is a type of conduct which is not only actuated by malice but also accompanied by wicked thoughts, abusive words and physical assault. This man acts not only with malice but thinks wickedly by mind, speaks abuse by word of mouth and gives a kick by body. What kind of nature would be determined of Karmic particles that would cling to the soul at the time of such conduct? Friends, it is a simple axiom that one who gives pain to another will certainly reap pain in reward, if not today perhaps tomorrow and if not in this life, in some future life. Thus in such behaviour, Karmas clinging to the soul will assume pain causing nature. Similarly at the time when a soul gives happiness to another, Karmas uniting with the soul at the time will develop the nature of causing happiness. Karmas are mainly distinguished for their eight kinds of nature. One of their eight natures is determined when the Karmas adhere to the soul. We discuss here these eight kinds of nature and their causes in order. 1. To siander really learned souls, to abstain from serving such souls or praising their virtues, to treat with disrespect the books that propagate truth; not to show appropriate respect towards such books, to misuse intellect. The nature of Karmas that stick to the soul at the time of any of the above activities would be determined as that of obscuring and suppressing knowledge. As a result such a soul when under the active influence of such Karmas will not remember despite best efforts and will forget what is learnt. To treat with contempt the deaf, the dumb, the blind etc not to aid such people, not to show kindness to them; not to make good use of the five sense organs of the eye, 27

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3. Inordinate attachment for the various kinds of acquired material happiness, the outburst of dreadful malice when. coveted happiness is not acquired, extremely selfish mentality, dislike for real saints, attraction for the same and opposite sexes. The nature of Karmas that stick to the at the time of the upsurge of the above kind of feelings is to confound the soul, to prevent acquisition of faith in truth and its implementation in action and to generate a liking for sensual pleasures. 4. 5. the ear etc and to divert them to bad use. Ths nature of Karmas that stick to the soul at the time of any of the aforesaid activities is to make one deaf, stammerer or dumb. This class at Karmas has also the nature to induce. varying kinds of slumber etc. 28 mar Nor to give money to anyone despite possessing it, to create obstacles in the way of anybody's gain, anybody's interest, to harass religious souls, to refrain from lauding philanthropists, to slander such people etc. The nature of Karmas that stick to the soul at the time. of above acts of commission and ommission is to make. such souls beggars, extremely miserly despite being rich and victims of such wicked diseases as will bar them from enjoying their resources despite possessing them. To give happiness and peace to others or to give unhappiness and dispeace to others. The nature of the bondage of Karmas at the time of the above activities is to give happiness and peace or the opposite to the soul according to the nature of the acts. 6. When 2/3 span of life or more of it has passed, the soul according to the nature of good or bad activity binds age. determinging Karma. The nature of this Karma is to determine the particular kind of birth in any one of the four states of existence and the span of life of the subject. 7. The nature of some of the Karmas that stick to the soul every moment is to determine the kind of body, the

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constitution of bones, the contour and symmetry of body, good or bad gait, the kind of eyes and other senseorgans and their proper and improper arrangement, good, or bad voice, honour or dishonour, respectability or disrespect that the soul will get in future life. Such various kinds of things are determined by such Karmas for the future for the soul. 8. The nature of the Karmas that stick to the soul at the time of exhibiting pride for one's good looks, intelligence or learnedness, family, valour etc is to give birth to the soul in future in low family. whereas the nature of those that stick to the soul while showing humility at the possession of the above qualities and making their good use is to give the soul birth in future in high family, good physique etc. At the very time of adherence of karmas to the soul, one of the above eight natures is determined. Friends, you have understood the meaning of nature, Nature means disposition, characteristic or peculiar trait. Do we not say the nature of this man is irritable, the nature of that man is very generous and the nature of a particular woman is talkative? In a similar manner, the nature of Karmas that stick to the soul is determined according to the acts of the doer. It means that when the aforesaid Karmas will effectively operate, they will express their nature in action and affect the soul accordingly. We have finished consideration of the nature-determination of Karma 2. We shall now consider deterinination of duration of the pahering Karma. Just as at the very time of adherence of Karma to the soul its nature is determined, so along therewith the duration of the period for which it will stay with the soul is determined. The determination of duration means the time or period for which the particular Karma has the capacity to stay with the soul. 29

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Some Karmas will stay less than the twinkle of an eye, some will stay for two or five days, some will stay for five, fifty or five hundred years, some will stay for lacs and crores of years, some even may have the capacity to stay for innumerable years. Friends, you may perhaps question that if the nature of a particular conglomeration of Karma is once determined to cause the fatal disease of cancer and its duration is determined for one thousand years, does it mean that the soul will start suffering the disease of cancer from the very time of the adherence of that Karma and that too for one thousand years? If he has only five years to live, does it mean that the disease of cancer will follow him in other births in a all physical frames till 995 years ? The answer to this question is to be very attentively noted. I have here to mention two salient features about the working of the state of duration. The first thing is that ordinarily the conglomeration of Karma does not begin evincing its settled nature from the very time of adherence. For some period of time this stock remains quite inactive. Suppose the nature of a particular pile of Karma is determined for one thousand years and that it remains dormant for ten years. It will then manifest its determined nature for the remainder of nine hundred ninety years. I will explain to you this matter by illustration A man eats mango juice to his heart's content. Because of this heavy load, the juice will surely cause him gas. But gas is not caused from the very time the juice goes into the belly. The juice remains in the belly inactive for some two to two and half hours. Then there is indigestion and thereafter from it rises gas. Friends, Karma is a particular kind of a timebomb. The timebomb does not explode the moment it is placed at a selected place but after one or two or tive hours at the predetermined time. 30

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You will now understand that the period for which Karma is to say with the soul is dividad into two parts. One part of time during which it will remain dormant and the other part of time during which it will actually manifest its nature. Karma is thus a timebomb. It will remain inactive for some time and then will burst into explosion. Another feature that needs to be understood properly is that during the time cf the dormant state of Karma, great possibilities arise for mul.ifarious transformations to occur in its nature etc. The nature of a particular stock of Karma that was determined to cause uuhappiness might change into one of causing happiness and also vice versa, Thus, there are possibilities of wholesale modifications in the natures of Karma to occur during the cormant state, Similarly, during the period of its dormant state there are possibilities of change both for increase and decrease even in the period of stay which was originally of one thousand years. Mighty variations in the strength of Karma might also take place during that state. It is not therefore the rule that the nature, duration, strength in award of fruit of Karma etc. that are determined at the time of adherence remain permanent. Rovolutionary changes occur in them during the state of dormancy of Karma. In consequence, tremendous changes can take place in the nature of Karma to cause cancer and its duration of one thousand years. Friends, have you read the biography of Rockfeller, the richest man in America? He has written in this biography the story of his sickness he got in his prime of youth. This sickness proved to him unbearable. He had passed several sleepless nights. Once he was exiremely tormented and sired. He took the doctors right and left and threatened all those that came handy. He said, "You all talk of love, but where is your love? Why, nobody becomes a partnor in my pain?" It is a story of a night. All are asleep. Only Rockfeller is awake. While lying in bed, he ponders, "How is it that my pain does not disappear, despite immense wealth at my disposal, 31

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doctors at my service, and nothing wanting in resources ? I have understood till now that money is the highest end in the world. One who has it can have no room for pain, can buy anything he likes by money. Not only myself, but the whole world is striving hard for money under that belief. But what do I experience today? Cannot the pain of one like myself go despite money? Ah! what is the use of this infatuation for money ? For its acquisition, I have not reckoned night or day; I have not been able to enjoy pleasures in its pursuit; I have been notorious as a miser in the world. If all the wealth that I have acquired by exploitation of sweat and blood of others cannot alleviate my pain of today, the pursuit on my part of wealth is the greatest blunder of my life. Ah ! what has happened has happened. By God | swear this night just now and remembering Him make a resolution that I will give away my wealth generously in charities, if I get relief from my present pain. If a wealthy man like myself despite the aid of eminently skilled doctors suffers so much, what would be the fate of the poor ! They get no doctor, no medicine". Friends, the strength of this resolution worked wonders. The nature of Karmas which had the strength to cause dreadful malady in the coming moments was transformed into the one of causing happiness as a result of the force of the above beneficial resolution. One moment after another came and the timebomb of Karmas whose iime had ripened began exploding. But its explosion did good but no injury. Rockfeller was not groaning. He was soundly sleeping. He continued sleeping till seven o clock in the morning. All were startled. The life of Rockfeller was transformed. Once notorious as a miser, Rockfeller now became famous as a great philanthropist. Thus during the dormant state of Karma, mighty changes can occur in the entire nature, duration, strength in award of fruit and other kindred matters relating to Karma. 32

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Suppose a man was once very kind and passed much time in the worship of God. At that time he accumulated a large stock of Karma whose nature would be to give much happiness. But the time bomb of this stock has not exploded. Its dormant condition continues. Meanwhile, this man gets in bad company and becomes vicious and addicted to drinks. This activity of the man has a very bad impact on the beneficial stock of Karmas referred to above. The nature of these good Karmas is transformed. The nature becomes so wicked as to cause great misery and unhappiness. If perhaps the duration of the above stock were of ten years, it would be lengthened to one of fifty years. It means the stock of Karmas whose nature was to give happiness for ten years would now be transformed into one of giving unhappiness and that too for the protracted period of fifty years. This would happen once the timebomb of Karma explodes. Similarly, suppose a wicked man perpetrates deceit and fraud. For the sake of his selfish interests, he does not wish well of others. Undoubtedly, the nature of the stock of Karma that would adhere at this time would be one of causing various kinds of pain. But during its dormant state, this man becomes strongly attached to the company of a religious teacher. He atones for his sins and makes his whole life virtuous. The nature of the stock of Karma which was to give unhappiness would now be converted into one of giving happiness. It means that when the timebomb of the above stock will explode, it would not give pain but happiness. (Thus various changes can occur in the nature, duration and strength in award of fruit of Karma sticking to the soul during its dormant state. However one thing should be borne in mind that there are some particles of Karma that cling to the soul rather strongly. While adhering to the soul all particle: do not do so with equal force. Some stick touching the soul like a needle touching a piece of iron Some stick to the soul rather as tightly as a needle bound to a piece of iron with a band. 33

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Some stick to the soul with still more rigidity like a needle that is hammered to a piece of iron. (While some in adherence are fused with the soul like a needle and a piece of iron that are melted together and combined. (In the above instances, changes in particles of Karma in the first three cases are possible during their dormant state. But no change is possible in the nature, duration and strength of particles of Karma that stick to the soul in the manner of the fourth instance. If the nature determined is good, it will remain good; (if the period of stay is determined a hundred years, it will remain hundred years; the strength of the particles once. determined will remain the same. Friends, you may ask why it so happens. The answer is that this is determined by the intensity of the upsurge of good or bad feelings of the soul while indrawing particles of Karma) Suppose ten men each commit a murder on the same day. Each of the ten have committed murder; all will be considered equally. guilty in the eye of law as murderers. But murders differ in their nature. One committed murder by tying a rope round the neck, the second by stabbing, the third by cutting the victim to pieces, the fourth by pounding the head. We can visualise wickedness of the deed from the intensity of emotions of the different murderers underlying the different modes of murders. The prima facie assumption would be that the mentality of the one who committed murder by cutting the body to pieces must be considered exceedingly cruel. Let us take another illustration. Ten men donate charities. One gives two hundred rupees much against his will; the second gives also two hundred but with great exhilaration; the third gives twelve hundred in place of two hundred; the fourth gives only one hundred, which constitutes the entire savings of his whole life. Well, the spirit underlying each donation is different. Truly, the fourth has donated only a hundred rupees but his mental feeling excels that of others in the act of donation.) In this manner the upsurge of mental feelings underlying good and evil deeds determines the nature of the particles of 34

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Karma sticking to the soul at the time. The upsurge of ordinary feelings does the work of merely sticking the molecules of Karma to the soul, whereas the exalted kind of such upsurge at the time of doing a good deed and the most dreadful kind of motivation underlying an evil deed will too closely fuse the corpuscles of Karma with the soul. The crux of the matter is that the soul will be helpless to do anything during the penden cy of the dormant period of the molecules of Karma of good or wicked nature which get closely assimilated with ihe soul. They will rest only after their time bombs have given their effect by explosion on the expiry of the period of their dormant state. We come across happy and influential persons who are not only unwilling to accept but also striving to shun public honours and receptions but are constrained by the compulsion of circumstances to receive them against their will. It often happens in cases of some who are blessed with immense happiness but are detached at heart and are intensely eager to relinquish this happiness and live a saintly life of austerity but are unable to do so and forced to pass a life of enjoyment as a householder. It would not be wiong to assume in all such cases that the above acts of such people would have been accompanied by great mental ecstasy while attracting the molecules of Karma of the liappiness causing nature and consequently these Karmas of theirs would have been closely fused with the soul and are now standing in their service to give them fruit of their established nature. Lord Mahavir in his several past lives committed such grave blunders with such wicked feelings that the corpuscles of Karma that stuck to his soul at the time were intensely unified. During the dormant state of those molecules of Karma, the Lord practised extraordinary rigorous religious penances, fasts and austerities. But these could effect no change in the nature of those Karmas to give pain as their nature of adherence was of the fourth category.)

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The upshot of all this is that it is not possible to effect any change even during the dormant state of the fourth class of Karmas that have been too firmly fused with the soul. Barring this class, it lies within one's power to work changes during the dormant state of Karmas of the first three categories, namely, those that have been bound with the soul mildly or those even firmly as depicted already heretobefore. It should also be perfectly remembered that we have no power even to effect any changes in the nature of the stocks of Karmas of the above three classes after the expiry of the period of their dormant nature. One thing that should be fully grasped is that the theory of Karma of the Jain Philosophers) is not one of fatalism of rustic dames. It is not the theory of inactivism, laissez faire, predestination or dependence on destiny The theory of Karma of the Jains is the theory of activism It teaches you th t you are the architect of your own fate and have the power to fashion desired changes during the dormant state of Karma. It is possible that in the previous period of life, through lack of proper understanding or bad company, you might have perhaps harboured evil feelings and committed evil activities and in consequence contracted Karmas of the paincausing nature, but if during the dormant state of their stay, you practise exalted righteous conduct and your mentality becomes admirably noble, the natute of the entire stock of the above molecules would be transmuted into one of giving happiness. Even if the nature of some stock of Karmas to give unhappiness is not amenable to the force of your noble conduct, its nature to give unhappiness no doubt will remain intact but the period of its stay will undoubtedly undergo change. Supposing its tenure for giving unhappiness is for ten years, it will be shortened to one of two years. Simultaneously, its strength to give pain will be weakened. If it possessed strength to cause agonizing pain, it would relax to one of causing ordinary pain. In like manner, the nature of Karma to cause happiness might gather considerable accretion of strength. The nature of Karma 36

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which was to ondow you with a fortune of a lakh of rupees might perhaps make you a multi-millionaire.) In this manner, many mistakes of a wrong doer will be extinguished and he will get the good fortune to reap many a good fruit. Likewise the contrary will also hold good. A man might be very virtuous in the earlier period of life, but if, afterwards, he betakes to an evil path and commits wicked deeds, the rich earnings of his former life would be wiped out. The former nature of the particles of Karma accumulated by him for causing happiness would now be modified into the one of generating pain due to his wicked activities during the dormant state of Karmas. And in case they happened to retain their original nature of producing happiness, the happiness produced would be of ordinary kind and that too of a shorter duration. Friends, a single mistake during the dormant state of good Karmas will demolish a huge stock of merit and one good act done during the dormant state of pain producing Karmas might burn to ashes dreadful calamities likely to befall in future. That is why the followers of the Omniscient Lords Jinas tread the saintly path of noble conduct, practise fasts and austerities, observe highest kind of chastity, consecrate their lives to the service of their religious preceptors and all the time remain cheerfully imbued with the benevolent feeling that all the creatures of the world get happiness and nothing but happiness. Countless mistakes no noubt might have been committed in the past innumerable lives and as a result, evil natured Karmas might have stuck to rhe soul in battalions. But if you wish to ward off impending calamities of their dreadful effect or to mitigate their force, you should, while their dormant state continues or the timebomb of their effect has not exploded, fill human life with all possible noble feelings and activities and that would be a splendid achievement worthy of human life. Friends, it has already been repeatedly stressed that it is not possible to effect any change in the nature of molecules of 37

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Karma that have unified indistinguishably with the soul under the impact of either highly beneficial or most dreadful sinister feelings during their dormant state. But this happens in respect of very few stocks of Karmas. Because exalted good feelings or those most dreadfully wicked are experienced only at times. Hence ordinarily it is possible to effect changes in the nature of many stocks of Karmas during their dormant condition.. After the above elaboration, you must have understood that the Karma philosophy of the Jain religion is not the fatalistic philosophy of rustic dames. It is not the philosophy of inaction but it is a philosophy of mighty activism. One who apprehends the philosophy of Karma of Jain religion in its true perspective becomes a practitioner of activities. Every true Jain is an author like the great saint Vyas of the Gita (Gospel) of high kind of activism. STRENGTH DETERMINATION : We have already discussed the nature and duration of the molecules of Karma sticking to the soul. Now we discuss about their strength. The soul that has not attained its perfectly purified state is still impure. In such a condition, new accretions of Karma occur every moment to the existing stocks of Karma lying in the soul. The time-bombs of old piles of Karma explode on maturity and make their far-reaching effects felt on the soul and then fall out and are scattered in the air. The nature of strength of the fresh molecules of Karma that unite with the soul every moment is determined at the very time of adherence. The nature of this strength is determined according to the mental vibrations of a particular soul. There are innumerable kinds of strength in the world such as the strength of an ant, the strength of a black ant, the strength of a she-goat, the strength of a cow, the strength of a camel, the strength of a jackal, of a lion, of an infant, of a youth, of a sepoy, of a Prime Minister, a Secretary General of the United Nations etc. Similarly varying kinds of 38

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strength lie in every stock of Karma. The strength of Karma depends on the kind of thought entertained by the mind. These innumerable kinds of strengths are classified under four heads : All kinds of strength that might be termed as very weak fall in the first category, those that might be termed as weak belong to the second category, those that might be termed as powerful come in the third category and those that might be termed as highly powerful pertain to the fourth category. We shall discuss about the strength of these separate categories designating them as the strength of the class first, of the class second, of the class third and of the class fourth. Suppose a man deceives people under the guise of being a gentleman, dressed in fine and shining clothes, practises this art of fraud with great skill, earns a lot and brags highly of his such income. By such ill-gotten gains he leads a merry life of pleasure, does not find anything wrong therein nor experiences any qualms of conscience for such pursuits. It is but obvious that the nature of the molecules of Karma that a man of such a mentality will attract will be one of giving unhappiness and that not for two or five years. It would undoubtedly give pains of poverty lasting continuously for a hundred or two hundred or even five hundred years. And the mentality under which the above particles of Karma were attracted being very wicked, the said molecules will have the strength of the fourth number. It means that when he will suffer misery of penury, it would be of no ordinary kind but one of dreadful privations. The reason is that if a man does not put to good use the things acquired, he gets deprived of those things for a long stretch of time. If a soul is endowed with eyes but if these are used mostly in enjoying the beauty of women, he will be dragged after death to the incarnation o an ant, bug or to any of those species which are devoid of eyes. If the organ of sense of the ears is acquired but if it is used in listening to obscene songs by a soul, he will be dragged to some such birth as of a scorpion 39

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or a grasshopper which are bereft of ears. If a soul acquires a beautiful body but if it is wasted in sexual enjoyments, he would be dragged to the birth of an ugly camel, whose all the eighteen limbs are deformed and bended. If a soul acquires power, but becomes conceited of it and remains unbending before one and all, he would get the life of a palm tree, which is always stiff and erect and cannot even bend if it so wishes. Friends, we are the architects of our own destiny. Our own mistakes are the root cause in the adherence of molecules of Karma and according to the intensity of mental feelings behind these mistakes, the duration of Karma and their strength are determined. Do not blame others for adversity however dreadful or boast of prosperity however great. Always be unbending and erect under adversity and detached under happiness. These virtues alone will help you to keep composure and compassion in life towards unhappy beings of the world. Let us now come to the main point, Just as very wicked thoughts create strength of the fourth class in the molecules of Karma, similarly highly beneficial thoughts also impart similar strength of the fourth class to them. When afterwards the time-boms of these good Karmas explode, the soul gets the fortune to acquire mountains of material prosperity, showers of honours and receptions from all around and besides sound and robust health. According to the diminution in the intensity of these highly beneficial or extremely evil feelings, there will be corresponding high or low vigour in the molecules of Karmas and the resultant strength might be of the third or even of the second category. Often the good intellect and conscience of a man powerfully prompt him to desist from a wicked deed but he does it under compulsion of circumstances and that too with a torn heart. As at such a time he does a wrong deed, he would gaiher molecules of Karma of a nature that would cause 40

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unhappiness but the period of their stay that would be determined would be quite limited and their strength quite feeble of the first number. When the time-bomb of these molecules will explode, he will get fever of only hundred degrees and it will disappear within an hour. Friends, the nature of the molecules of Karma might be determined of any kind, it may be one of causing misery or happiness, of keeping one ignorant or making learned, of causing blind or giving sight, of making mad or calm and contended in happiness. This is not a big thing. The crucial thing is the determination of the period of stay and strength of these molecules of Karma. It might cause pain but it matters little if the pain is short lived and quite simple. It is not necessary to get scared merely at the name of pain. Similarly, if it caused happiness but if such happiness is temporary and that too of a very ordinary kind, it is not a matter to be elated with joy. Let the pain be of a moment but if it is strong enough to make one shriek, how tormenting would it be ! Let happiness be of ordinary kind, but would it not be a blessing, if it were to continue uninterruptedly for the whole life? The important thing is the determination of duration and strength of the particles of Karma and not so much their nature. These are determined by the nature of feelings, mild or strong of the soul. We should, therefore, be on guard lest our wicked feelings should get excited and good feelings get enfeebled. (As have told you just before, that the dormant state of the particles of Karma is such a splendid hopeful period that during its time, we can entirely obliterate the possibility of our dismal destiny and establish a foundation for a progressive life of mighty glorious future. But to achieve this end, it is necessary to convert the pain-causing nature of Karmas that have stuck to the soul due to its past mistakes into one of generating happiness. If that were not possible, it is essential that the soul should destroy the long duration of the molecules of Karma and their strength

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of the second, third or of the fourth class. If we elevate the pitch of good mental feelings to the summit by a dash from the base, the strength of those painful molecules of Karma of the fourth class will not merely weaken to that of the third or the second class but will even go lower to that of the first class. Ah ! the strength of even fhe first category may be snapped. How powerless and helpless are these Karmas that attach to the soul in this state. What pain could these helpless molecules of Karma cause to the soul after the expiry of the dormant state of these time-bombs of Karma. Ah ! their power to cause pain has been totally annihilated. Would not the ferocious strength of a python, if kept hungry for months together, be destroyed ? If it is then let free, what harm could it do? Would it not then be a python merely in appearance ? As orherwise, it would not have strength enough even to strike a fly. However what would happen when these powerless time bombs of Karma explode ? Nothing ! Ah ! could they be said to have exploded? They may be called merely damp squibs. Let me explain all this matter more fully. A man committed such a mistake in the past that the nature of the molecules of Karma that stuck to his soul at the time was determined as one of making him a dog in the subsequent life. Afterwards good sense dawned in him, as a result of the company of a religious preceptor and renouncing wealth and pleasure, he embraced a saintly life. In this life by his preachings, he admonished a number of people and the upsurge of his good feelings rocketed to the sky. As a result, it so happened that the nature of many molecules of Karma which was to cause diverse pains was entirely transformed into the one of givng happiness. But somehow or other, the nature of Karma which was to turn him into a dog did not come under its forceful impact and merely received a jolt. As a result, its nature was not converted, but the strength that lay in it was shattered. This man after death again got human birth. It so happened in this life that the time-bomb of the molecules of Karma rendered 42

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powerless in the last birth exploded but became a damp squib. Man remained man and explosion of that time-bomb of Karma could not turn him into a dog because it had not exploded but became a damp squib. Had that man not broken the strength of that time-bomb previously, that man on the explosion of that time-bomb, in whichever life he would have been, would have been dragged after death into the womb of a bitch to prepare the physicel frame of a dog. manner, (during the period of In this our happiness, numerous time-bombs of molecules of pain causing nature. continue becoming damp squibs. The reason is that we had previously smashed their strength by the vigour of our good feelings. Similarly, during the period of our happy and unhappy times, numerous time-bombs of molecuies of Karma of happiness causing nature continue becoming damp squibs. Molecules of Karma might be said to possess happiness causing nature, but not a shadow or shred of happiness might be experienced from them. Even a dream of happiness would not be had because. we had completely broken their strength previously by the vigour and force of our evil feelings. The molecules of Karma whose strength has remained intact can only make us experience happiness or misery, because these molecules are such timebombs that they explode only on the completion of their dormant state and do not become mere damp squibs.) I will illustrate this master by citing an instance. A man ate mango juice to the fill. Sometime after, he experienced shock of gas due to indigestion and began shouting seizing his belly. This is called the explosion of the time-bomb or or the outburst of a calamity. But had this man used precaution during the period of the dormant state of juice and taken a spoonful of ginger, what good would it have done !,It ts true, fibrous pieces of juice might have remained in the belly but that would not have led to indigestion. This is called that the time-bomb became a damp squib. 43

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No doubt, the fibrous pieces of juice are present in both the states. But in one state, the Juice manifests its violent nature and in the other this nature is curbed. But one thing is common to both that the fibrous pieces of juice will be transformed into excreta and this waste willmove out by the way of motion. Friends, you might be remembering the famous dictum of the Gita, " Karma that has once stuck to the soul is not destroyed without once manifesting its effect". Have you now fully grasped the meaning of the above dictum ? Some molecules of Karma make their experience felt in an ordered manner by exploding, whereas many molecules becoming impotent pass off as damp squibs without causing any pereeptible effect, But we have to experience them as exploding or as becoming damp squibs. Only the omniscient Lords have been able to give the true explanation of this dictum. Because the Lords had actually perceived and known through omniscience the occurrences of explosion of the time-bombs of Karma and their ineffective manifestations as damp squibs. If every Karma manifested itself in effect by explosion, no soul would be able to achieve its perfectly purified state, because it would never be able to free itself from the association of Karma molecules. Suppose a stock of molecules of Karma exploded, its nature was to give human birth and in consequence that being got human birth. On his getting human birth, the relevant stock of Karma was destroyed by explosion. But that soul in his lifetime as man would continue accumulating innumerable stocks of Karma as time-bombs and if every time-bomb were to fall off only by explosion. there would be no end to this occurrence. Because one timebomb would explode and millions new wouid be formed. Hence, the theory of destroying the time-bombs of Karma by making them ineffective has to be admitted. The explosion of one time-bomb endowed a being with human birth but as billions of such time-bombs of Karma will continue falling away by explosion as damp squibs, there is no doubt this would 44

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once help the eventual attainment of that state of emancipation free from tinge of Karma. Friends, have not Russia, America and other big powers manufactured atom bombs and hydrogen bombs in huge quantities? If there could be no end to them except by explosion, would that not lead to the destruction of the whole world? The talks then of military pacts of disarmament would be futile. Such talks could be held only if there was possiblity of making these destructive weapons ineffective without exploding them.) And that is the fact. If the treaty of disarmament is agreed upon, the connecting wire with the bomb that contains the strength of the destructive bomb will be delinked. With the delinking of the wire, the force of destruction of the bomb will be destroyed. It means that inspite of retaining intact its original nature of destruction, its dreadfulness will be totally destroyed. In this way, this bomb will turn a damp squib. The world will have the good fortune not to experience its dreadful havoc. Because the bomb was destroyed, not by explosion but by being rendered ineffective. Similarly the human life which we experience at present is due to the explosion of the time-bomb of particles of Karma that possessed such a nature. Whereas in the present life wel destroy the time-bombs of molecules of Karma endowed with the nature of giving animal birth by not exploding them but rendering them powerless as damp squibs. In consequence, we do not have to put on the body of an animal or of any other kind of life just as we now have the body of human life. The destruction of the bomb lies in its explosion as well as in its being reduced to a damp squib. 45

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It is a solid fact that the piles of molecules of Karma never move out without being destroyed. That dictum of the Gita is a perfect truth. Friends, we possess the mighty strength to destroy the vigour of the time-bombs of molecules molecules of Karma in their dormant state. We should not miss to utilise any opportunity to demolish the strength of evil-natured molecules of Karma. We can seize this golden opportunity only when they lie in a dormant state.) I would like to explain one other matter. If I do not explain it, it is possible a host of other questions will continue cropping up in your mind now and then. Just as we have the power to transform the nature of molecules of Karma and to bring mighty augmentation or diminution In their strength in their dormant state, so also modify the timing of their effect by causing it to occur earlier or later. It means that we could so contrive that the time-bomb which is expected to explode to-morrow may explode to-day. Ordinarily, the time-bomb of Karma explodes at its decided moment. But a casual act on the part of a being happens to push the time-bomb to explode even earlier. But in such an occurrence the aid of an outside instrumental cause is essential. I will explain this matter by citing an illustration: Suppose a man is sitting at home at ease, listening to a radio and enjoying a cup of hot tea. Suddenly at this time a fried of his comes and presses him to go with him. That man gets reacy. and accompanies his friend in his car. The motor meets with an accident and the skull of the man is pounded to pieces and the man dies. Here, this occurrence can be explained in two ways. In a way it may be said that the time for the time-bomb of the life ending molecules of Karma had ripened and therefore the friend came to call him and he went and met with death. But friends, Lord Jina says that it does not happen always in this manner that something was destined to happen in that 46

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way and therefore, a particular man did this and that. Yes, sometimes such a certain state is ordained in a particular way and that impels a being to advance in that manner. But ordinarily the opposite happens. It means that the event which could be explained to have happened at a particular time in an ordinary manner has actually come to happen at time in an unnatural manner. It means that if that man had not accompanied this friend in the car, he would have been sitting alive at home because he had still in stock life-giving mulecules of Karma that were to last, say for five years. But as mentioned above, an efficient. cause intervened and consequently the molecules of Karma of life, which were to end at the end of five years by dropping away gradually, fell off altogether in the twinkling of an eye, having received a severe jolt. The winding of a clock which would keep it continuing for twenty four hours is exhausted all too suddenly by a shock. A long rope which wouid take an hour to consume by burning slowly would burn away in a moment, if ignited after being wound up in a coil. A tank of water which would take ten minutes to empty with the cock half opened, would empty in two minutes with the cock opened fully. Let us take another instance. A man is suffering from disease. He feels acute pain in the belly. He tries many doctors. but does not improve. Someone then advises him to take medicine from Rameshbhai, because the latter has a reputation for curing. That man takes medicine from Rameshbhai and the pain of months disappears within an hour. How did this happen? In this instance, it might as well be argued that the medicine of Rameshbhai concided exactly with the time of the explosion of the molecules of Karma which had the nature of banishing pain and produce peace and happiness. And that explains the rationale of the happening. 47

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Yes, certainly, it can be argued thus. But such a thing. happens rarely. It is not a rule that every occurrence takes place with such mathematical accuracy. It so happens rarely. The explanation is that the nature of the molecules of Karma which brought Rameshbhai fame were effective by explosion and were continuous in operation. If at the time, the pain of the man would not subside by the medicine of Rameshbhai, what would be the fate of Rameshbhai's reputation? Rameshbhai would continue to enjoy reputation only if the pain of the man. would subside. It means that the reputation earning time-bomb of Rameshbhai caused the happiness producing producing time-bomb of the other man to explode earlier which in fact was to explode later by two months. In this manner, the time-bomb of pain or happiness producing Karma in the distant time very often explodes earlier, if it happens to get the aid of a circumstantial cause. Do we not find the son of a multi-millionaire plunging himself into the stormy strife of a national movement and inviting whirlpools of pain? Only an hour before he was in high glee and now suffering the pangs of jail! Fetters of iron. on his feet! And bread for food mixed with cement! How did this happen? Was it because the time-bomb of particles of Karma which had the potentiality to cause pangs of gaol life had exploded? Could we say that he left his spacious bungalow because the time for the said time-bomb to explode had ripened! No, no, on the other hand, it should be said that his haste in leaving the bungalow for participation in the national movement hastened the explosion of the time-bomb which was not to explode so soon. When Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister of India, how sound, strong and well-entrenched was the position. of the Congress? And after him why the Congress ship was seen sinking, despite all those members remaining the same I There could be only one answer that the time-bomb of Karma which brought popularity and renown to Nehru had exploded in full 48

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force and that could only happen if the Congress continued to be strong. Today Mrs. Indira Gandhi has not the good fortune to possess that time-bomb of Karma, which would bring her renown. On the other hand, her time-bomb of Karma which would bring her rather unpopularity has exploded and hence the whole nation is dragged in the vortex of various sufferings like high cost of living, dissensions, provincialism, devaluation etc. In this manner, the explosion of the time-bomb of Karma of a particular person having the nature of producing good or bad results, will correspondingly aifect the destinies of var ous persons connected with him by hastening the time of explosion of the time-bomb of their Karmas. The sin of one will sink many innocent lives and the merit of one will save many sinful souls. Friends, I narrate to you an authentic episode in corroboration of the above truth. A boat was sailing in the river Ganges with fifty passengers going out for a picnic. The boat on reaching deep waters got entangled in a whirlpool and began whirling about. It would not get out despite best efforts of the crew and passengers. One religious soul thought that there should be a wicked man in the company on account of whose sins the lives of all were endangered and therefore, if that man could be separated from the company, all the rest would be saved. He hit upon a stratagem and called another boat. A plank was placed between the two boats and the passengers in turn were asked to move out from one boat to the other. But no sooner did one man get into the other boat, than the first boat turned turtle and the rest of the fortynine were drowned. What happened! Not because of one person's sin but because of the vigorous strength of his life sustaining particles of Karma, the life sustaining particles of Karma of 49

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others were being sustained and were gradually getting extinct. But no sooner did the aforesaid person get separated, than the life sustaining particles of Karma of others, all in a moment, simultaneously were shed and all of them died. What a wondrous concurrence! It teaches us clearly that the particles of Karma of one affect the others. Similarly, matter acts as an extraneous instrumental cause to affect the molecules of Karma of a soul, as we have perceived from the occurrence of accident and the illustration of Rameshbhai's medicine. Does not the intellect of a man increase by eating Brahmi leaves? How could this be happening? The explanation is that the elements of Brahmi affect the molecules of Karma that have the nature of obscuring knowledge of the soul and thus hasten the explosion of the time-bomb of these Karmas and help them to fall away earlier. Friends, from all these matters the gist to be deduced is that the dormant state of Karmas is the period of strenuous effort for the soul, and an extraneous circumstantial cause. means very powerful elements that have the strength to explode the time-bombs earlier than their settled time. If we understand these two things properly, we would grasp the abstruse philosophical knowledge of the Jain religion. We will properly apprehend the mechanism of Karma working behind occurrences in the world and in our lives. If we get the correct perspective of the working of Karma, our life will be transformed an intense liking for virtuous conduct, noble thinking, and righteous speech will sprout in our soul and our whole life will turn pious and even saintly. Quantity Determination: We have uptill now considered the nature, duration and strength to give fruit of the molecules of Karma sticking to the soul. We now take up the consideration of quantity of the stock of Karma particles clinging to the soul. 50

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In the very beginning, we devoted our consideration to the subject of atoms and their stocks of sixteen categories packed densely in every space of the universe. In that connection it was explained that any stock of the sixteenth group contained infinite particles. Hence, the determination of number of particles sticking to the soul is very easy. One can readily say that the particles clinging to the soul in any stock is infinite. We now finish consideration of all the four aspects that distinguish the particles of Karma fusing with the soul. Let us consider the fourfold nature of Karma on the analogy of a ball of ginger. What is the nature of a ball of ginger? How long would it last? What is its strength or taste? What is its weight? The answers to the above four questions are as under. The nature of the ball of ginger is to remove gas. It will remain good for a fortnight or a month, its taste is pungent, its weight is 100 to 150 gms. We have explained the matter of Karma in its four aspects on the analogy of the ball of ginger. 61

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CHAPTER VI ENERGY OF MATTER Friends, you have now properly grasped what tremendous strength these particles of Karma possess. Every embodied soul is laden with the layers of Karma. Karma has a direct or remote relation with the exterior perceptible universe. It is due to the influence of the particles of our Karma that the sun and the moon move in precision of time, in the ordered manner in their chartered course in the spheres and do not crash on the earth. It is also due to this influence that the ocean does not roll beyond limits. The conflagration of the forest does not envelop the world, the rains do not pour in deluge to drown the world, the earthquake does not shake to entomb the world in the bowels of the earth; not all the the lightnings in the monsoon fall to strike the earth; the molecules of Karma of all the living beings play their role behind the above phenomena. How can all be dragged into the jaws of death, when the forceful time-bombs of their life-sustaining molecules of Karma have exploded and are at work? Yes, it is true that at times even the ocean trangresses the limits of its sweep; at times an earthquake shakes the earth; at times even a lightning falls at some place and the cause of it is that the lives of the beings located at a particular place at a particular time are fated for the calamity of death. In short, in the dispensation of the whole universe, the molecules of Karma have a vital share. 52

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You may perhaps pose a query that the whole cosmic order is the handiwork of God and how can one attribute it to the agency of Karmic molecules ? Karma is matter and can there be such tremendous energy in Karma?) Friends, to raise any such misgivings in this Sputnik age of science is to my mind very astonishing. Do you not take a purgative pill at times for motion ? Have you marked its potency of throwing out waste from the bowels ? This pill does the work your two hands cannot do. is not the pill a form of matter? I will cite another example. Is not the penknife a kind of matter? Strike it on your body with force. Will that not make you shriek with pain ? Does not the penknife belong to the genre of matter? What a tremendous effect has it on Jiva ( being)? Let us talk of a chilly. It is also a kind of matter. But if you put its powder on the tongue, it will draw out tears from your eyes, Is it not magic ? Are not the words that you utter a form of matter? That is the reason why they are caught in a machine. What great strength does this kind of matter possess? If anybody calls you a dog, who then becomes bloody red, who raises the hand to strike and who retaliates by a volley of abuses ? Are not all these activities of a worldly soul? And if anyone addresses you as a gentleman, what a kindly, look you would assume ? How polite you would become! What gentlemanliness you would show! Who does all this? Is not a worldly soul thus affected by word which is matter? Ah ! see, this Pradip has put on spectacles. Of which number are they ? Number four. And let him put down the spectacles. He would not be able to read anything, Ah! it is 53

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the work of the soul to read and acquire knowledge by reading. In the absence of the soul, both the eyes and the spectacles jointly would not be able to read. Put on the spectacles on even the good eyes of a corpse. Would that help it to read ? No. How is it that a wordly soul is not able to read without the spectacles ? And how is it that Pradip begins reading again on putting on the spectacles ? Are not spectacles dead matter? Yet, what a marvellous effect they have on the eyes ! They make a forceful impact on Karma molecules and when put down there is nothing but darkness for the eyes. Let us take another illustration. Is this not the body of Ajaya you see? is not the soul residing there? Would you admit that body itself is not soul? Well, now if Ajaya is bound by a cord with this pillar and then asked to run, would he be able to move ? Ajaya then would reply, "How could I run when bound by a rope with the pillar?" At that time, if I tell Ajaya, " Your are an embodied soul. Can a worldly soul be bound by a rope ? Rope is nothing but matter. Can the soul be bound by a rope ? You were arguing what capacity matter has in doing anything to the soul". I have not bound your soul but only your body. Cannot the soul run ? Body is matter. Rope is matter. Can the two jointly bind the soul? Friends, what would poor Ajaya reply? He will have to admit that inspite of rope and body being matter, they have the capacity to bind the soul. Well, similarly the soul residing in the body is bound by particles of Karma fused with it. Now, I hope there is no cause for any astonishment in this matter. To doubt the capacity of matter in the Sputnik age is to doubt the science itself. If you read my book on "Science and Religion ", you will get to know the scientific opinions about the energy of matter. You will feel at once, what 54

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tremendous and unimaginable energy matter possesses. The world of science has produced inventions of unimaginable energy of matter. There are two entities in the world. Soul and matter. What tremendous progress science has achieved in the world of matter! The propounders of Jain Philosophy have openly declared that matter possesses infinite energy. The only limiting factor is that they have not made use of this energy or experimented with it because these processes involve tremendous himsa (violence). The Jain Darshan gives importance to the development of the soul only. The joy which is sought in the association of matter lies in the soul itself. No joy is filled in the mango. It lies in the eater of the mango. The vast ocean of joy can be experienced without any circumstantial cause of matter. And for that reason only, the Jain Religion for attaining the independent sovereign blissful state of the soul has propounded the processes for annihilating Karmic coverings obscuring the perfect state of the soul and turned a blind eye to the dazzling development of the world of matter. But it has in no uncertain terms discussed about the extraordinary energy of matter I will now cite an instance of a computer. The Tata Institute has installed a computer worth rupees 96 lacs. This computer within fifteen seconds gives answers to thousands of multiplication and divisions. Its speed for counting sums and substractions is still far greater. Friends, what tremendous energy this lifeless machine possesses ! Ah! I will now recite to you an astounding story about the reply of a computer to a query. You will not then doubt even in a dream how molecules of Karma which are matter can create birth and death to a soul. A man had resort to a computer for advice about watches, He told the computer that he had two watches and one of the two had stopped. The second was moving daily ten seconds behind time. So, which of the two should be tied on his wrist? 55

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Friends, what type of a question do you find this? You may consider this question quite foolish. For when one watch has completely stopped and the second one which is in order is moving only ten seconds behind, it is quite natural to say that one should keep the second watch. Well, would you not answer thus? But friends, this machine which has no life in it gives such an astonishing reply that even a man's brain. would not work out so speedily. That computer told the man, "What is there to ask? You should put on your wrist the very watch that has stopped, because it would show the right time every twelve hours, whereas the second watch which is moving behind ten seconds every hour will be behind twelve hours in twelve years and will show only once the right time during this long period". What an astonishing reply! In this not all the capacity of matter? Behind it, there is not any active conscious work of the soul. Whereas behind the energy of Karmic matter is working the active active conscious force of the soul.. Karmic molecules have independently no strength of their own. In Russia, mechanical machines of matter give translations of entire books in various languages. The computer gives answers within twentyfive seconds of multiplications of fifteen. figures by fifteen figures. We would at least take an hour to make that mathematical calculation and it is doubtful even after that effort the answer would come correct. The scientists of Russia and America release selfpropelled rockets in the space. Sitting in the laboratory they project rays of matter towards those rockets. These rays help the rockets in tne performance of various kinds of work. They give food to the dogs kept in the rockets and also close this service. They even help the dogs to sleep and awake. Is not the army of millions of needles kept ready in the space to destroy Russian rockets made of matter. 56

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Friends, do you require greater proof about the capacity of matter? Now I think you have no doubt about the tremendous energy of Karmic matter to change man into woman, to sustain life, to give death, to upraise an individual to the Prime Ministership of the realm, to suddenly dethrone that person from that status, to cause blindness etc. There is thus no need of believing in the motivating force of any providential agency behind the workings of matter. No, not at all. Well then, very good. 57

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' CHAPTER VIL MODERN SCIENCE & LAW OF KARMA Friends. people have blind faith in the modern science and that is the reason for further elucidation of this subject from this perspective. If any noted scientists of today were to declare his assent to the doctrine of Karma, the modern man would at once follow suit. And if that scientist happened to be an alien, his conversion would be all the sooner. With what speed a draught of water is gulped down the throat ? With speed swifter than that, he would understand the talks of that foreign scientist. Friends, you are all modern men and votaries of modernism. Let me then bring to your notice what a foreign experimenter Alexander Cannon has to say on the subject. This gentleman was a devoted student of science of hypnotism. He had conducted many experiments in this field. What he came to know and understand from all these experiments, he has incorporated in his small book named "The Power Within ". In the sixteenth chapter of this book, he has proved the existence of a previous birth and reincarnation of the soul from his experiments on hypnotism. In that chapter on page 170 in para 44 he says, "For years, the theory of reincarnation was a nightmare to me and I did my best to disprove it and I even argued with my trance subjects to the effect that they were talking nonsense and yet the years went by, one subject after another told me the same story, inspite of different and varied conscious beliefs, in effect until now, well over a thousand cases have been so investigated and I have to admit that there is such a theory as reincarnation ". 58

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Proceeding further in that chapter (Page 170) he says in explicit terms in para 45 as under : "This study explains the scales of justice which is a very broad way of showing how a person appears to suffer in this. life as a result of something he has done in a past life through. this law of action and reaction known in the East as 'Karma' as to which a certain newspaper gives very interesting delineation day by day at the time of writing. Many a person cannot see why he suffers one disaster after another in this life. Yet reincarnation may reveal atrocities committed by him in lives gone by ". Further on page 171 in para 46 he expresses his views. more vividly and with greater emphasis on this subject in the following terms: "The biblical version of vengeance as a lion shall. lie in wait for them (Ecl. 27, 28) can be interpreted as Karma. Does it not throw light on the Biblical passage," AS a man sows, so shall he also reap (Gal 6, 7) where the secret lies in the word also '. Probably implying that he only reaps in this life that which he has sown in former lives ". The experts of this science as a result of a number of experiments have come to a definite conclusion that the doctrine of reincarnation is proved by the sixth kind of an intensely deep hypnotism on a trance subject. In consequence it helps to solve many a knotty problem of the present day. There are numerous people who are constantly obsessed by various kinds of fears. Such people are not able to unravel the causes of the sufferings of fear and like maladies, because they are not able to discover their causes from the present life. If in such cases a resort were to be had to the science of hypnotism and if the subject was applied the sixth kind of hypnotism with success, the memories of the past incarnations would rise up and from them the causes of the present complex of fears would be traced. 59

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The modern intellectual of today may or may not believe but on the basis of this principle these people have completely remedied the mental agonies ot many a man. In the above book, Alexander Cannon has stated several experiments of hypnotism. We shall here examine only two of them. There was a man who never got down by a lift because the fear always obsessed him that the lift might fall. Once he went to a hypnotist and disclosed to him all his fears. The hypnotist made many enquiries but he cauld not trace any cause of fear from his personal life. He was then made to sleep and subjected to deep hypnotism. The memories of past lives revived and in his talks of these lives, he talked of his life as a Chinese General. He said, "Once I accidentally fell down from a very high building and my skull was split and I instantaneously died". After hearing this much talk, the said man was made to get up and was told, " In your life of a Chinese General the episode that has happened in your life of a fall has impressed strong samskars of the fear of fall and these samskars revive in you the fear of fall with the lift". Let us observe another case about a woman. This woman was highly afraid of water and would not go near a river, ocean, tank or well. She once visited a hypnotist. He made her sleep and tried to revive in her memories of past lives. In one of these lives she lived as a man and passed the life of a slave in the city of Rome. In that life, for some guilt he was made to descend in deep waters with his feet tied with fetters, He died of strangulation in water. From this he deduced that the present samskars of fear in approaching waters was rooted in the samskars of fear mpressed in the above past life by the above kind of doom she met. As otherwise, there was no cause for any fear. 60

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Friends, there was no place till now in the European religions for soul, rebirth, reincarnation, which are fundamental beliefs in the works of the Jain philosophers. But there has begun now a flutter about these matters in the intellectual world. They have now started considering whether there is anything like soul. Is there a life beyond the present life? Or we are totally destroyed here with death. If that is not so, what happens to us after death. Many of those who were subjected to deep hypnotism were questioned about the reality and eternity of the soul. They had replied in the following explicit terms, "We do not die. We live on through the ages into eternity. The voice is the instrument whereby we the greater World can make known upto you the great truths of Eternity in language form" (p. 174). Those who talk of past births say, "If you perhaps ask us what is immortality, we unhesitatingly reply, "Eternity means cessation of limitation" ( Page 174 para 49 ). Friends, you should know much about this subject. If you wish to know more about this, you will be highly satisfied if you read my book, "Science and Religion". What I have to emphasise here is that the present day scientists are now veering to the talks of soul, Karma, past, birth, rebirth, which have been preached by Lord Jina. They also have now accepted the reality of the soul, its permanence and the effects of Karma on the soul. What I wish to emphasise here is that the doctrine of Karma of Lord Jina is at present receiving serious consideration. 61

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CHAPTER VIII NATURES OF SOUL - ORIGINAL & ASSUMED * hile talking about the Doctrine of Karma, we have discussed that the soul is potentially perfect. Its original nature is quite pure, but this original nature is suppressed by the crusts of molecules of Karma of the sixteenth group piled upon it and what appears to us is its assumed nature.) The embodied soul is in fact a supreme soul. In its original nature, it has no name, no place but in its assumed nature, it is recognised by the name of Yogesh and as a citizen of the city of Bombay. Thus one possessed of infinite happiness is called unhappy, though perfectly healthy is called diseased, though not man is called man, though not woman is called woman, though not beggar is called beggar. It is the particles of Karma that create this distinction of the two separate natures of a soul. When all these particles of Karma are annihilated, fall out and are scattered in the sky, the perfectly purified nature of a being as a supreme soul is unfolded.) We have discussed before that when Karmas of the sixteenth group stick to the soul, their nature gets determined. Ordinarily, they have a eightfold nature. They make the soul (i) ignorant, (ii) blind, or inert etc., (iii) selfish by making it mad in worldly happiness, pleasure loving, sexual, angry, loving or malicious, (iv) penniless, dependant or weakling, (v) physically happy or unhappy, (vi) bring death, birth and life, (vii) confer body, sense organs, respectability or hatred, honour or dishonour etc. and (viii) cause descent in high or low family. 62

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But when all these eight kinds of Karmas are extirpated by their bleeding roots from the soul, the embodied soul attains the status of a supreme soul and eight mighty attributes of the soul suppressed by its own Karmas blaze forth in full glory. The soul then becomes (1) all-knowing, (2) all seeing, (3) absolutely free from attachment and aversion, (4) possesses infinite vigour, (5) infinite happiness, (6) becomes. immortal, (7) formless and (8) gains all miraculous kinds of attainments. With the annihilation of Karmas, the embodied soul becomes a supreme soul and attains its exalted natural status. 63

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CHAPTER IX EMANCIPATION FROM THE BONDAGE OF KARMA Friends, we have devoted a good deal of consideration to the subject of the doctrine of Karma. Therein we indicated what sovereignty Karma held on all the embodied souls and how it ruled the destinies of the entire universe. It is a great misfortune. It is an extremely grievous condition that the soul which has the potentiality of infinite happiness should remain subject to the sway of Karma and get entangled in the eddies of pains of birth and death, disease and sorrow. And what does it matter if its favour confers upon us the Presidentship of a nation or makes us a son of a multi-millionaire like Andrews Carnegie? After all is it not a condition of confinement under the watchful eye of Karma? To the discerning, millions of happiness of such confinement appear as good as ashes. The question then poses, "How could we get emancipation from the thraldom of Karma ? Is there a power on the world which could vanquish Karma ? Does there exist a power which can cleave the chest of Karma by its tiger-claws? Or which can behead it and send its corpse rolling down on the earth?" To this there is but one answer that there exists only one entity and that is religion that can wage a successful fight with Karma. The power of religion is the only power which can give a mortal blow to Karma. What then is this religion ? Friends, holy conduct, holy thought and holy word is the content of religion. Those who keep their conduct, thoughts, ever holy are the saints. These saints still move from place 64

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to place sanctifying the land of this Aryabhoomi. They own no house, no family, are renouncers of wealth and woman, masters of the senses, and preservers of equanimity of mind under all circumstances, agreeable or adverse. They do not commit himsa of any creature even by mind and of theft even in their dreams. They entertain no thought of carnal pleasure and have no attachment towards any worldly thing. Living such a life of rigorous austerities, it is the saints who annihilate the forces of Karma. There are those, who though are not able to live a life of such exalted kind of ahimsa, observe ahimsa etc. in life partially. They are designated as householders of laymen who by living such a worldly life give battle to the battalions of Karma and destroy them. The souls of the above three categories are inveterate ememies of Karma. Those who are wholly or partially the practitioners of the religion of ahimsa and the like and those who because of circumstances are not able to live such an exalted religion but are staunch partisans of such a religion, both the classes of men burn to ashes egregious stocks of Karma. Friends, staunch liking for the religion of right conduct is the foremost and most potent a weapon for rending the chest of Karma.) Thereafter strength gathers strength with the advance in higher practices of religion. However, if those, who do not possess the capacity to observe the above higher practices of religion, pay reverential respect even while living the life of householders, to the lives of the saints and householders living a virtuous life, can become free as possible from the clutches of Karma. It means that it is the religion of paying reverential homage to virtuous souls that acts as a catalyst for the acquisition of all exalted kinds of religion and for bringing success to their practices. Mind, the one in whom reverence 65

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sprouts for all kinds of virtuous souls gains enormous strength to be free from the wicked tendencies and the baneful practices of life and such a soul because of his admirable respectfulness reaches the exalted category of virtuous souls at one time. Friends, if you aspire to become free from the octopus of Karma, you should pay reverential obeisance to the souls who have attained the elevated life of holy conduct, holy thought and holy speech. To become free from the bondage of Karma, resort to a saintly life sooner or later is indispensable. But remember, to become a saint, you have first to become a true servant of any saint from this day. You have now properly apprehended what kind of a material force Karma is. You have also grasped what sovereing sway it holds on ail souls and how dreadful it is. Now, will you be able to properly measure the value of human life? Friends, would you now continuosly feel that the Karmas stuck to us possess a tremendous power to throw us down at any time, in any state ? Hence for any adversity that may befall you, do not blame any other individual but yourself that has attracted and gathered molecules of Karma of paincausing nature. If you learn in this manner the true art of convicting your own self as guilty, your mind will not be ruled under any adverse conditions and will not stoop to blame cirumstances or men. And when you are in enjoyment of prosperity under the explosion of happiness producting molecules of Karma, just consider that even these molecules of Karma will cease giving happiness with the expiry of their duration, this happiness too will one day vanish and therefore, there is no need to become mad, considering it to be perennial. Do not, therefore, become conceited like the present day rich and those in authority and power who so demean themselves under those maddening influences. You will then be able to maintain serenity under all circumstances, pleasant or painful. ) When you will become thus composed you, will get the inner eye to visualise the world in its true perspective. You 66

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will then be able to perceive the dreadful condition of people groaning under the burden of Karma. The pitiful shrieks of the suffering souls due to the commital of guilts under the influence. of Karma will then reach your ears. You will then get to hear their painful tales at which your heart will weep. You will then get ready to spend away your wealth to relieve the distress of those suffering souls. Your feet will then be quick to run to their poor huts... Those alone who understand the philosophy of Karmal and actualise the gospel of activism in life are able to look after and work for the happiness of others, themselves remaining composed and calm. Friends, it is our prayerful wish that the philosophy of Karma preached by Lord Jina spread all over the world; all may understand it, and by understanding it those that may be inert may become active, those that may be weeping under the burden of pain may become still and calm, and those that might be living a carefree life of unconcern and indifference to one and all under the spell of prosperity may become alert any begin thinking of others, leaving aside the thoughts of themselves. Lot all love one another. Let all understand one another. Let all be impregnated with the feeling to tread the saintly. path of right conduct.. Let the whole world become virtuous. Let no sight of wickedness or wicked thought meet the eye. Let us make our life holy and good from this very day to behold the aforesaid auspicious and beneficient state of the world. Because ourself is an inseparable integral part of the world. Let the life of truth begin from the self and the truth gradually spreading will cover the world. Let all beings be happy, let all beings apprehend the law of Karma, let all beings be ardent votaries of activism, let all beings be true servants of the saints. 67

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