First Steps to Jainism Part 1

SR No.: 001640
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sancheti Asso Lal, Manakmal Bhandari
Publisher: Sancheti Trust Jodhpur
Publication Year: 2002
Total Pages: 300
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Religion, & Education
File Size: 10 MB

Page 33

force or energy or waves too fine to be discernible to sense but all the same real and powerful.
12. Thus when we talk of influx or bondage (asrava or bundh) of matter into or with the soul we refer to the matter in a restricted sense i.e. to its karmic form. These karmas can be harmful or beneficial to the degree they result in physical or mental pain or pleasure which depends upon the nature of one's own actions. If the actions are good e.g. charity, or bad e.g. violence, they result in pleasure and pain respectively. Some even recognise these two also in the list of fundamentals calling them merit (punya) and sin (pap) to take the total number of fundamentals to nine. However, generally these are considered as part and parcel of influx and bondage. It may be clarified, however, that sin and merit are both fetters of the soul, may be fetters of gold or fetters of iron, and for complete liberation of the soul it is essential to get rid of both these types.
The Seven Fundamentals 19
13. With the above background we now take up the description of the seven fundamentals which may be repeated as (i) Living soul (ii) Non-living matter (iii) Influx (iv) Bondage (v) Prevention (vi)Separation and (vii) Liberation.
(i) The Living soul-the first fundamental:
While volumes have been and can be written on the subject of the living soul, it has been briefly dealt with already in the chapter of The Universe. Living soul being the center of the entire Jain philosophy, we may recapitulate in brief that it is non-material, eternal, conscious substance with perfect perception, knowledge, bliss and power. It is responsible for its actions and reaps the fruits thereof. It is numberless, the whole entity filling the entire body it occupies and tends to arise upward. The broad translation of a poem by Dr. Bharil of Jaipur, summarises the attributes of the living soul which is given below. In this the soul describes itself in the following terms:
"I am self sufficient,
without trace of anything else, Tasteless, formless,
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