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Chapter 1 - Verse 4
Now it specifies the categories:
Living beings, non-living entities, influx, bondage, restraint, shedding of karmas, and liberation are the principles.
In many texts, virtue and sin are included, describing nine principles. However, here, virtue and sin, along with the principles of influx or bondage, are encompassed, and only seven principles are mentioned. This inclusion should be understood as follows:
Virtue and sin, in the form of substance and disposition, are of two types. Auspicious deeds are substance virtue, and inauspicious deeds are substance sin. Thus, substance virtue and sin are marvelously intertwined in the principle of ‘substance’ because the specific relationship of the self (soul) with pudgals or karmic pudgals is termed the principle of ‘bondage’. The cause of substance virtue is auspicious disposition, called disposition virtue, and the cause of substance sin is inauspicious disposition, called disposition sin, which is also included in the principle of ‘bondage’; because the karmic dispositions causing bondage are termed ‘disposition bondage’. Disposition bondage is the same as disposition influx; therefore, virtuous influx can also be referred to as influx.
1. In Buddhist teaching, the four truths of suffering, its origin, cessation, and path are known as the four noble truths. In Samkhya and Yoga philosophy, which speak of the four flaws, aim, harm, and the means to harm, five principles from influx to liberation are recognized in Jain philosophy.