Religion and Philosophy of the Jainas

SR No.: 001190
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Jain International Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1993
Total Pages: 266
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, Ethics, & Principle
File Size: 13 MB

Page 138

RELATION BETWEEN SOUL AND KARMA
105 substances unite to form the compound in which cannot be seen its elements, water, for instance, is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen, and these in combination make water, which is a quite different substance from either, and neither hydrogen nor oxygen can be seen in it. So it is with the combination of the soul with karma, the combination is even more subtle than the chemical combination, and the result is a different substance from either of the ingredients.
The soul is a supersensuous substance; in thought, it can be divided into parts, but not actually; it cannot be actually taken apart.
To reduce the combination of soul and karma, you have to use certain mental and moral disciplines.
Each state of the soul had a beginning (that is, any one given particular state, it was always in the past combined with karma, but its combination with any particularly mentioned or given karma at a particularly mentioned time—this particular state had its beginning); but the soul itself, which is the subject of these states, had no beginning. There never was a first state, in the sense of there being no previous one.
The particular state in which the soul is at any given date and place did have a beginning. The state of existence, if 'existence can be called a state, it should rather be called a 'fact'; the fact of existence did not have a beginning; there never was a time when the individual soul did not exist in some state and in some place.
It is unnatural for the soul part of the compound (with anger, for instance, which is a karma) to act in an angry manner. We commonly hear it said of a person, that he acted in anger, he was not himself.
There will be a time in the future, when the soul is without kaima; and once without it, will always thereafter henceforth be without, perfect and liberated.
It is important to point out what has already been stated : namely, that the combination of the soul with the karma is a very subtle combination which can only be reduced by mental