Philosophies of India

SR No.: 007309
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell
Publisher: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd
Publication Year: 1953
Total Pages: 709
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 34 MB

Page 293

JAINISM audience-hall, this karma interferes with the perception of the processes of the universe, making it difficult or impossible to see what is going on; thus it veils its own operation on the jiva. c) The karma that creates pleasant and unpleasant feelings (vedaniya-karma). This is compared to the edge of a keen swordblade smeared with honey and put into the mouth. Because of this karma all our experiences of life are compounded of pleasure and pain. d) The karma that causes delusion and confusion (mohanīya-karma). Like liquor, this karma dulls and dazzles the faculties of discrimination between good and evil. (The kevalin, the "isolated one," cannot be intoxicated. Perfect enlightenment is a state of supreme and sublime sobriety.) e) The karma that determines the length of the individual life (äyus-karma). Like a rope that prevents an animal from going on indefinitely beyond the peg to which it is tied, this karma fixes the number of one's days. It determines the life-capital, the life-strength, to be spent during the present incarnation. f) The karma that establishes individuality (nāma-karma). This is the determinant of the "name" (näman), which denotes, in the "subtle-gross” form of sound, the mental-spiritual principle, or essential idea, of the thing. The name is the mental counterpart of the visible, tangible form (rupa) 96_that is why magic can be worked with names and verbal spells. This is the karma that determines to the last detail both the outward appearance and the inward character of the object, animal, or person. It is the fashioner of the present perishable mask. Its work is so comprehensive that the Jainas have analyzed it into ninety-three subdivisions. Whether one's next incarnation is to be in the heavens, among men or animals, or in the purgatories; whether one is to be endowed with five or with fewer receptive senses; whether one is to belong to some class of beings with charming, dignified gait and carriage (such as bulls, elephants, and geese) or with ugly (such as camels and asses), with movable ears and eyes, or with 06 Cf. supra, pp. 29-24.
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