________________
supporting edifice of the
It is karma--the abiding consequences of
our own actions—which subject us to Key-stone
revolve round the wheel of births and deaths Jain Ethics.
through all these stages of existence. Our present state of being is not an allotment of a power working upon us from without, but rather is the cousequence of our own deeds done in the past, either in the present or in our previous lives or stages of existence. Whatever happens is the effect of some anterior causes and conditions and whatever one reaps, is nothing but the harvest of what one had previously sown. This is the key-stone supporting the grand edifice our ethics which declares the dignity and equality of all souls in any form of their existences and teaches as well that every soul stands erect and independent of the so-called inscrutable will and power of any superior Being to whose silent doors we need not creep for the gratification of our desires and ambitions, nor need we crawl weeping and moaning with a view of purging our souls of sins and iniquities of our own make by His grace. The Jain ethics based as it is on this automatic law of karma
286
