Ahimsa and Jainism

Author(s): Vijayvallabhsuri
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

Page 40

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is super-sensuous and which prevades the whole world The Jains believe it to be the result of actions arising out of four sources-(1) The first source of Karma is attachment to wordly. things such as food, raiment, dwelling place, and women, etc; (2) Karma is produced by uniting one's own body, mind, and speech, to worldly things: (3) Karma is engendered by giving the rein to anger, pride, deceit or greed; and (4) false belief is a fruitful source of Karma: The Jains divide karma according to its nature. duration, essence, and content. It is intimately bound up with the soul. The Jains have eight kinds of Karma:-The first kind hides knowledge from us; the second kind prevents is from seeing the true faith; the third kind causes us to experience either the sweetness of happiness of bitterness of misery; the fourth kind bemuses all the human faculties. It results from worldly attachments and indulgence of the passions. The fifth kind determines the length of time which a living bing must spend in the form with which his karma has endowed him; the sixth karma decides which of the four states or conditions shall be our particular gati. The seventh kind is gotra karma which determines a man's life, his occupation his abode, his marriage, bis religious 'observances, and even his food. The eighth and last
kind of karma always stands as an obstacle ***