Ahimsa and Jainism

Author(s): Vijayvallabhsuri
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

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of experience shows that worldy life is for the most part full of suffering due to birth, disease, old age and death. Lives of lower creatures seem to be but an unrelieved tale of sorrow. The modicum of happiness and joy experienced by higher forms of life is marred by its transient character. It is little more than licking of a honey-coated sword-edge
Moreover, throughout the worldy existence one is engag:d in an unceasing welter of activi. ties. They consist niostly of good and bad deeds, done under the influence of passions (kasaya ), perverse attitude (mithyatva) and strong attachment to things of the world (avirati). They bring in their own load of misery.
And death does not hold any promise of relief from this sorry state of affairs, because the law of karnian demands retribution. Accordingly, a life-time record of good and bad deeds forces upon the soul another birth for experiencing their sweet and bitter fruits. During this new birth the soul contracts fresh karmans and is again reborn. And so goes on the continuous cycle of births and sufferings. EFFECTS AND CAUSES OF KARMAN
Jain's conceive matter as made up of infinitessimad particles; either gross or subtle. Karna