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THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE JAINAS.
inclination. These are material conditions, independent of the pure soul. But the mundane soul which wears his Karmic body of matter, is by means of it, continuously attracting and shedding matter of Karmas. Thus from the practical point of view, the soul may be said to be the producer of Karmas and the enjoyer of the fruits thereof. From the pure real point of view, the soul is only the doer of its own pure conscious activities and enjoyer of its own natural peace and happiness. The point here, as in the preceding Gathas, is that each substance modifies only within its own attributes and therefore can be said to be the doer and enjoy er of its own modifications.
जदि पुग्गलकम्ममिणं कुठवदितं चेव वेदयदि आदा। दो किरियावादितं पसजदि सम्मं जिणावमदं ॥१॥ यदि पुद्गलकर्मेदं करोति तच्चैव वेदयते प्रात्मा । द्विक्रियावादित्वं प्रसजति सम्यक् जिनावमतं ॥११॥
91. If the soul causes this Karmic matter, and enjoys the same, (from the real standpoint also), there results the doctrine that one primary cause can produce contradictory primary effects. (Such is the) right teaching of the Conqueror.
Commentary.
Here the author again emphasises the distinction between the real and the practical points of view. The real deals with the Pure Real Soul only. The practical with the soul as we find it in practice impure, embodied, mundane, affected by Karmas, passions, pains, pleasure, wrong belief etc., etc. From the practical standpoint this embodied matter-clad soul may be said to cause material Karmic conditions and to reap the harvest sown by it. Should some hasty pupil conclude from this that the soul sometimes can cause non-soul or material conditions, he would be surely mistaken. The Author therefore insists that one substance cannot perform two kinds of quite contradictory actions. Conscious substances can only be modified into conscious, while unconscious substances into unconscious. Every action is but a change in the form of the original thing. The past form is the cause, while the present form is its effect.
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