Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism

SR No.: 001617
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S C Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1978
Total Pages: 272
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Epistemology, Nyay, & Spiritual
File Size: 16 MB

Page 168

164: Structure and Functions of Soul in Jainism
the vedaniyas karma which causes its enumeration once among the destructive karmas and then also among the nondestructive karmas. The reason seems to be purely a psychological one. If an attitude of liking or disliking is absent, the self will not accept the things as objects of feeling. As these attitudes are determined by the deluding karma, the vedaniya karma must presuppose the mohaniya karma, for its function, and in the absence of the latter the former must become quite ineffective. This makes the generation of pleasure and pain dependent upon two kinds of karmas, i.e., the vedaniya and the mohaniya.
Both Destructive and Non-Destructive Types of Karmas as Responsible for Generation of Pleasure and Pain
We have still to find out reasons why the four destructive karmas and also all the eight karmas have been said to distort the faculty of feeling. In producing the feelings of pain and pleasure the vedaniya karma has a direct hand, but its nature is such as it becomes ineffective in the adsence of the mohaniya karma. This accounts for the presence of infinite bliss even when the vedaniya karma has not been totally eradicated. At the same time all the karmas have a negative effect upon the soul, each of them brings about some sort of impairment of the soul. In the presence of the deluding karma all the eight karmas contribute towards the distortion of the soul's capacity for feeling. It is why no one partcular karma has been assigned this function. It is in this sense that all the eight karmas have been said to obscure the faculty of feeling. From this it also follows that in the absence of the mohaniya karma no distortion of the feeling faculty of the soul is possible. The destructive types of karmas bring about an impairment of a serious type, and the mohaniya karma is included in this group. The knowledge-obscuring and the conation-obscuring karmas hit directly some of the most important attributes of the soul. When their function is reinforced by the deluding karma, the impairment of bliss takes very serious forms. When such serious impairments