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fundamental quality of the soul, compels it to continue its wordly existence. Four ghātin karman are :
(i) Knowledge-obscuring (ii) Intuition obscuring (iii) Deluding (iv) Energy-obstructing.
These are further sub-divided into (a) Sarva-ghātin — fully destroying and (b) Desa-ghātin -- partially destroying.
(a) Sarva-ghātin : There are five categories of knowledge and hence there are five sub-types of knowledge-obscuring karman that veils them. Omniscience (kevala-jñāna) is an innate quality of pure soul which remains completely obscured by one of them. The remaining four sub-types are partially obscuring because they obscure only those categories of knowledge which are left uncovered by the fifth which covers the pure and perfect knowledge. Similarly the full intuition of the truth (kevala-darsana) remains obscured by one sub-type only of darsanāvaraṇa karman, while three sub-types partially cover the intuition. Five types of sleep-producing karman are also sub-species of this main type and they obscure the intuition fully.
The deluding karman is primarily divided into two types : (a) delusion of the truth and (b) delusion of conduct. Predilection for and faith in truth (samyaktva), which is, like omniscience, the innate characteristic of the soul, is destroyed by the sarva-ghātin truthdeluding karman (mithyātva). Three strong types of passions (totaling twelve)' also fully cover their objects. Thus there are twenty
1. Delusion of truth (mithyātva) lies at the root of evils, and the worldly state of existence
of the soul and whatever misery there is in the career of a soul is ultimately due to it. It has no beginning in time and is there from all eternity. Its beginninglessness cannot be questioned because it is an ultimate fact. It is there. It is, also, the primary cause of the new bondage of karman. Until and unless its potency is destroyed or at least subsided sufficiently, the soul is unable to transcend the cycles of rebirths and continues its worldly