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A Treatise on Jainism
13
full of oddities. This force is called ‘Karma'. We are unable to perceive Karma by our naked eyes, yet we are able to know it from its actions.
The thrones of mighty monarchs are gone. The proud and the haughty have been humiliated in a moment and reduced to ashes. What is the principal cause of all this? It is Karma. Even amongst the twins born of the same mother we find one a dullard and another intelligent, one rich and another poor, one black and another white. What is all this due to ? They could not have done any deeds. while they were in their mother's womb. Why then should such oddities exist ? We have then to infer that these disparities must be the result of their deeds in their past births though they are born together at one time.
In Jain Philosophy the word Karma has quite a different and unique significance. The starting principle of Jainism is that there is an eternal beginningless union between soul and matter. This union though without a beginning is not without an end. When once the union is entirely broken, when once the soul is free from the slightest vestige of
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