Jaina Philosophy and Religion

SR No.: 001604
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nyayavijay
Publisher: B L Institute of Indology
Publication Year: 1998
Total Pages: 500
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Epistemology
File Size: 12 MB

Page 271

Metaphysics, Ethics and Spiritual Development
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or destroy man's karma (destiny). But it is certain that his surrender and devotion to God do foster his love and practice of religion, they (=love and practice of religion) influence his karma (destiny) in accordance with their intensity and thereby can alter his karma, transform the bad into the good and almost destroy it. No karma (destiny) lasts for ever. On the expiry of its time-limit it is destroyed and with its end ends its fruition. This is the reason why the wise remain continuously engaged in the activity of creating good destiny in order to perpetuate for ever their good state. (And activity of creating good destiny is nothing but righteous living.) By doing so man makes himself permanently happy and at the same time attains higher and higher stages of spiritual development and becomes more and more spiritually sublime and elevated. In the auspicious stream of life becoming spiritually richer and richer, there arises an unprecedented great opportune moment when man attains a state leading to the highest peak of spiritual evolution and consequently attains liberation lying beyond the duality of good and evil.
Those who practise spiritual discipline to attain liberation, make use of the good teachings of the doctrine of karma in cultivating the good quality of forgiveness towards others who have done harm to them. And those who take recourse to the court of law to resist the wickedness of others who have harmed them, make use of the good teachings of the doctrine of karma in adopting mental attitude of forgiveness, not yielding to the feeling of enmity. "Whatever harm my opponent or adversary does to me, does on the strength of my own karma, my karma uses him as its instrument and causes him to act the way he does, so it is wrong to be furious with him, in fact I should be furious with my own karma”adoption of this line of thinking helps man to cultivate the good quality of forgiveness and to keep away his mind from the filthy and defiling states of anger, passions and quarrels causing bondage of unwholesome karmas.
Wickedness of the wicked is the result of the disease of ignorance and passions. This disease urges men to act wickedly. Their condition is like that of ordinary patients afflicted with high fever and other diseases. So like ordinary patients, they too deserve our sympathy and forgiveness. One who knows and understands the essence of the doctrine of karma thinks on this line.
One who understands the doctrine of karma is not proud of the good fruits of his good karma, nor is he unhappy and sorry for the bad fruits of his bad karma, because he knows that they are not to last for ever, that