Disclaimer: This translation does not guarantee complete accuracy, please confirm with the original page text.
The doctrine of free will is accepted. It is said that happiness and sorrow are ordained by fate. There are many happiness and sorrows that are not considered to be ordained by fate. They are produced by a person's own efforts, time, inherent nature, and karma. Taking this view, those who believe in the Arhat-Jain religion also accept that happiness and sorrow, etc., are achievable through effort, i.e., they are caused by human effort or endeavor. The reason for this is that any result is produced or manifested by some action, and action is based on effort or endeavor. Therefore, it has been said that one should not stop trying even if one thinks that only what is written in fate will be obtained, because even a drop of oil cannot be obtained without effort or endeavor. The determinist, accusing determinism, said that although the effort or endeavor of many individuals is the same, there is a difference or variation in the results. Consider this, it is not really a fault because the effort of all those who make an effort is different according to their ability, circumstances, etc. When there is a difference in effort, how can the result be the same? Even with the same effort, some results are not obtained at all, this is the result of the hindering karmas done in the past. They are not visible, therefore they are called unseen. Jains also consider them to be the cause of happiness and sorrow. Similarly, time also has a role to play in a way, just as the Vakula, Champaka, Ashoka, Punnaga, Naga, and Amra trees do not bear fruit at the same time - in the same season. Their fruits have their own separate times to come. Karma cooperates with time in a special way. The determinist, presenting his side, said that time is a form, therefore, a world full of diversity and variations cannot be produced from it. This statement does not apply to us as a fault because we do not only accept the agency of time, but also the agency of karma. Therefore, it is due to the diversity and variety of karma that diversity or variety is seen in the world. There is no fault in our doctrine. It has been said that God is the creator of the world, in this regard, our proposition is that the soul is born in different forms of beings according to its own karmas, in this way, from one perspective, it is omnipresent, it can also be called God, that soul or God is the creator of happiness and sorrow - it produces happiness through its good karmas and sorrow through its bad karmas. There is no dispute in this regard in the doctrines of all the schools of thought in the world. It is proven according to everyone's perspective. To prove that God is the creator of happiness and sorrow, to refute it, the determinist has tried to prove the fault by raising the question whether the soul is concrete or abstract. We consider the soul to be God. There is no other God different from it according to our doctrine. Therefore, this fault does not apply to us. Nature is also an agent from one perspective because the soul is the essence of use, it is infinite in its regions. Pudgala is concrete, Dharma-stikaya is helpful in motion and Adharma-stikaya is helpful in stillness. These are abstract - all these situations are produced by nature itself. The determinist has tried to show the fault in the agency of nature by saying that nature is separate from the soul or not, this is not proven because nature is not separate from the soul. We have accepted that the soul is the agent. Therefore, the agency of the soul is inherent in nature. Karma is also called the agent
-
63