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Preface
61
The quality called Shraddha (faith) arises. It remains in the soul until the fruit of our good or bad actions is obtained.
The Sankhya philosophers say that the impressions of our good and bad actions fall on nature, and it is from this innate impression that we experience happiness and sorrow.
The Buddhists say that our good and bad actions leave an impression in the form of a latent tendency (vasana) in the mind, which becomes the cause of happiness and sorrow in the future.
Thus, the various philosophers are mostly of the opinion that our good and bad actions create an impression in the soul, and this is the cause of our happiness, sorrow, life and death, and the cycle of transmigration. But the specialty of the Jain philosophy is that while it accepts the impression of good and bad thoughts in the soul as the cause, it also accepts that a special type of subtle particles (pudgalas) are connected to the soul along with this impression.
Acharya Kundakunda has described this in his Pravachanasara as follows:
Parinnamadi jada appa suhammmi asuhammmi ragadosajudo, tam pavissadi kammarayan ganavaranadibbhavehin. (65)
When the soul, endowed with attachment and aversion, engages in auspicious or inauspicious activities, the karmic dust, in the form of knowledge-obscuring (jnanavaranakarma) and other types of karma, enters the soul.
The essence is that when the soul has good or bad feelings for performing any virtuous or sinful act, the subtle particles, taking the form of karma, get attached to the soul, and in due course, they give the fruit of happiness or sorrow.
Acharya Kundakunda has discussed how the soul wanders in the cycle of transmigration due to the bondage of karma, in his Panchaastikaya as follows:
Jo khalu samsarattho jivo tato du hodi parinamo, parinnamado kammam kammado hodi gadisu gadi. (128)
The soul that is established in the cycle of transmigration, its modifications become of the nature of attachment and aversion. From these modifications of attachment and aversion, new karmas are bound. From the fruition of these karmas, births in various realms (gatis) occur.
Gadimahigassa deho dehaado indiyani jayante, tehindu visayaggahanan tatto rago va doso va. (129)
When the soul attains a particular realm, the body is obtained. From the body, the senses arise. From the senses, the grasping of sense objects occurs. From this, attachment or aversion arises.
Thus, the soul keeps wandering in the cycle of transmigration, and from its feelings of attachment and aversion, the bondage of karma occurs, and from the bondage of karma, the feelings of attachment and aversion continue to arise.
From the above discussion, it is clear that the cause of the wandering in the cycle of transmigration is the bondage of karma, and the cause of the bondage of karma is attachment and aversion. Another name for attachment and aversion is Kashayas (passions). The root cause of attachment and aversion is Moha or ignorance. Knowing or not knowing the true nature of the soul is called Moha. Thus, attachment, aversion, and ignorance are the causes of the cycle of transmigration, and it is due to these that the soul experiences various sufferings.