________________
I am the Soul
139
He always remembers, 'I have to suffer for the Karmas that I have accumulated. No one has given me sorrow. These karmas are my own invited guests'.
The jiva binds himself in Karmas through attachment and aversion. That is when the feelings of attachment and aversion arise in the soul, there is a sort of vibration. Due to this vibration the karma-particles lying around us are also activated and attracted upon the soul. This is what we call the bondage of karma. Now these karmas when they attach themselves to a jiva, they immediately create in it various sorts of abilities. The karmaparticles are inanimate. They do not know when they have to rise and offer results to the jiva. But at the very moment when the Karma is bound, the situations develop in the jiva.
Two situations are predetermined. One is called Abadha Kal - 31774T - the period between the bondage and the rise of Karma; the second is the length of time for which that karma has to be suffered. Thus the karma arithmetic is all determined. There can be no changes in it. The reason for such situations developing for karma are our own feelings. Thus, it amounts to saying that we have ourselves invited the Karmas to come at a particular time, and accepting our invitation they promptly arrive on the dot at our door. Therefore the karmas that have arisen are like invited guests who have arrived.
Brothers! Tell me! How happy you are when those you have invited arrive! How you look after them! With what love, and respect! How respectfully you honour them, felicitate them! When they arrive you don't make faces, don't show your boredom. Just the same way the prudent jiva welcomes the arisen karmas with a smile, knowing well that they were of his own doing. He does not lament their arrival and as such the extreme torture of hell is also borne with an equanimity and considerably reduces the bondage of new karmas.
Jain Educationa international
For Personal and Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org