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CHAPTER III Doctrines of Jainism
1. The Doctrine of Karma (1) Importance of the Doctrine
The doctrine of karma occupies a more significant position in the Jaina philosophy than it does in the other systems of philosophy. The supreme importance of the doctrine of karma lies in providing a rational and satisfying explanation to the apparently inexplicable phenomena of birth and death, of happiness and misery, of inequalities in mental and physical attainments and of the existence of different species of living beings.
It will not be out of place to recapitulate here whether we have already discussed that every Jiva or soul is possessed of consciousness and of upayoga comprising the powers of perception and knowledge; it has no form but it is the doer of all actions; it has the capacity to occupy the full dimensions of the body which embodies it; it is the enjoyer of the fruits of its actions and is located in the changing universe: it has an inherent tendency to move upwards and is a Siddha or liberated in its state of perfection.
If these are the characteristics of jiva or soul, how is it that a jīva finds itself entangled in the samsāra, i.e., cycle of transmigration, suffering birth and death, happiness and misery? In the world, only a few souls are in a state of comparative development and the rest of them are encaged in forms and bodies which make them blind to their nature.
The answer to this enigma is to be found in the doctrine of karma which explains the operation of karmic matter which
