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equilibrium and results in fresh bondage of karmas. Therefore, the ideal way to face the fruits of ones karmas is to face them calmly,
ctively and peacefully with full equanimity of mind. If you are oppressed with pains, treat the occasion with equanimity and understanding, thinking within yourself that it is a good opportunity to shed your karmas, which have been of your own creation out of some ignorance. If you are passing through a period of pleasure, thank the scheme of universe which has not failed to reward your good actions of the past, and be prepared to do further good without any strings of desires attached to it. One should constantly remember that pleasure and pain are the inseparable constituents of life and the true art of living consists in learning to bear with equanimity and understanding. If this is done, no fresh karmic bondages are evolved while reaping the fruits of our past karmas.30
Thus it can be concluded that in the context of Jain ethics, doctrine of karma is as important as the theory of cause and effect in the field of science. Thus the doctrine of karma is based on certain fundamental postulates :
(i) It is a law of personal responsibility; the doer himself must bear the consequences of his actions. This liability cannot be shifted. If a person escapes human retribution, he must face divine' retribution. The unexhausted karmas have to be experienced by the doer in his subsequent life or rebirth. The very belief in this karma theory restrains each and every action of the human conduct. Moral conduct of an individual is the cause of moral conduct of the society. So it can be said that peaceful co-existence, law and order in the society can be maintained through the faith in the law of karma in this L.P.G. era.
(ii) There is inequality and sufferings in life, the doctrine of karma is evolved as a parallel to and on the pattern of the general law of causation, cause and effect, which we notice in the physical universe. The doctrine of karma seeks to explain these phenomena in a "rational” manner, that they are not the result of blind functioning of the universe, an arbitrary fate. Hence, the doctrine is based on the maxim, 'As you sow, so shall you reap'. The inequality and suffering, which a man has to face or undergo, is nothing but the consequences of his own earlier acts. It is a law of retributive justice. Thus it is the doctrine of karma, which makes the world of sentient creation morally intelligible. There is no escape from the consequences of karmasin case of nikacita karmas. 31
(iii) The doctrine of karma extended the causal law to the moral realm. It held that good and evil deeds have a necessary causal
