$JES 904 Compendium of Jainism (Jain Academic Bowl Manual 3rd Edition)

Author(s): JAINA Education Committee
Publisher: JAINA Education Committee

Page 75

PHILOSOPHY
B09 Theory of Karma: Q and A
That means that sensations are experienced on account of the existence of soul or consciousness. The sensations are however not felt while a patient is under the influence of anesthetic drugs. If lifeless drugs can thus affect the sensations of a live being, there is no reason to think that lifeless Karma cannot affect the property of the soul. As the bodily sensations revive when they are no longer under the influence of drugs, the soul also can attain self-realization when it is no longer subjected to the bondage of Karmas.
Q.4: Karmas are lifeless and hence unconscious. How can they be conscious enough to bear specific fruits appropriate to that type of Karma?
A.4: Karmas do not have to be conscious in order to bear fruits and have effects. The propert of some Karmas is that they will automatically work. If a person consumes poison, the result would be death. For this purpose, poison is not conscious of killing him. It is the inherent property of poison that works. Similarly different types of Karmas have their own respective properties that come into effect in their own ways.
Q.5: If purity, enlightenment, bliss etc. are the properties of the soul, when did it initially get polluted with Karma?
A.5: Worldly souls have been smeared with Karma since time without beginning. They have never been devoid of Karma. Therefore, the question of the soul's initial bondage with Karma does not arise.
Q.6: If the soul has been associated with Karma since the time without beginning, there can never be an end to it. As such the soul can never be devoid of Karma. Then why worry about it?
A.6: Though the bondage of Karma is without beginning, it is not the same bondage throughout time. Every Karma has a time limit during which its consequences have to be borne and that Karma sheds off at the end of that time. Meanwhile the soul indulges in new Karma and thereby gets new bondage. If the soul does not indulge in new Karma, it can be devoid of Karma when the consequences of previous Karmas are fully borne and the soul becomes disassociated from them. In religious terminology this disassociation is called Nirjarä.
Compendium of Jainism - 2015
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