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• Perfect knowledge (Anant Jnän)
Perfect Perception (Anant Darshan) • Perfect Faith and Conduct (Samyaktva and Anant Charitra = also known as Bliss)
• Perfect Power (Anant Virya) As such karma those which affect knowledge, perception and energy act only to obstruct these qualities of the soul, to prevent their full manifestation. The bliss quality alone undergoes defilement due to wrong faith and conduct and it leads to transformation into an impure state as the result of association of Karma. Unless all these are realized the soul cannot be considered pure or perfect as elements of impurity or imperfection remain, which vitiate the capacity of the soul. The four Karma that vitiate or impair the soul are called Ghäti Karma or Destructive karma. These are:
Knowledge Obscuring (Jnänävaraniya) Karma Perception Obscuring (Darshanävaraniya) Karma Deluding (Mohaniya) Karma
Obstructing (Antaraya) Karma These Karma respectively vitiate the four innate qualities of the soul mentioned above. These Destructive or Ghäti Karma may be divided into two subtypes (1) completely vitiating or Sarva Ghäti and (2) Partially vitiating or Desha Ghäti depending upon the extent to which they obscure the innate qualities of the soul. The remaining four categories of Karma; Status (Gotra), Age (Ayu), Physique (Näm) and Feeling pertaining (Vedaniya) determine the physical or worldly existence of the soul in respect to the social standing, duration of life, types of body and happy/unhappy circumstances respectively, that the soul will encounter in the physical existence. They do not vitiate or damage the innate characteristics of the soul and are, therefore, termed as Nondestructive or Aghäti Karma. Jnänävaraniya (Knowledge Obscuring Karma): Knowledge obscuring Karma obscures the infinite knowledge of the soul. Those who have less knowledge obscuring Karma can learn easily while those who have more knowledge obscuring Karma have problems retaining knowledge. There are five subtypes of knowledge obscuring Karma. They are:
Empirical-cognition knowledge obscuring Karma (Mati Jnänävaraniya) Karma Articulate knowledge - scripture knowledge obscuring (Shruta Jnänävaraniya) Karma
Clairvoyance knowledge obscuring (Avadhi Jnänävaraniya) Karma • Telepathy knowledge obscuring (Manah-paryaya Jnänävaraniya) Karma
• Omniscience knowledge obscuring (Keval Jnänävaraniya) Karma Empirical-cognition knowledge obscuring (Mati Jnänävaraniya) Karma Empirical-cognition knowledge refers to knowledge, which is acquired using the senses and mind. Karma that blocks this function of the mind and senses is known as empirical-cognition knowledge obscuring Karma. Therefore, if someone has more empirical-cognition knowledge obscuring Karma, then he/she would be able to acquire less knowledge by mind and senses, while on the other hand, if someone has less empirical-cognition knowledge obscuring karma, then he/she would be able to acquire more knowledge by mind and senses. Every soul with one to five senses possesses at least a rudimentary form of this knowledge. Articulate knowledge - scripture knowledge obscuring (Shruta Jnänävaraniya) Karma:
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