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PHILOSOPHY OF SOUL
371
You consult a lawyer if you are involved in some criminal case, you consult some technicians when your goods are found defective, you spend out more than half of your property to cure your chronic disease then what will you pay to the person who frees you from the worldly bondages-from the prison of Karmas and who prevents your entire life from being corrupted ? Great men are determined to act benevolence and so they never expect from you any price for their benevolent acts but indeed they yearn to see that you apply their remedy whole-heartedly and set yourself free from the series of births and deaths as early as possible.
If one holds that penances prove effective to annihilate newly created karmas only and not very old ones then the great sages have clarified the point under discussion. They have clearly laid down that Karmas accumulated in millions of existences can be annihilated with the help of penances. They can be destroyed.
This means that if we desire to destroy all karmas which are in existence we should take resort to penances.
Question : Can the Karmas be destroyed without penances ! Answer : When certain physical tortures like cold and heat are
endured unintentionally destruction of Karmas does take place in very meagre form. Karmas destroyed in this manner are technically called unintentional destruction of karmas
(Akama Nirjara). Question: What sort of destruction of karmas is effected by the
observers of penances ? Answer : Meagre form of destruction of karmas arises when
non-violence or self purification is not intended in the practice of penances, whereas intense destruction of karmas arises when the same is intended. This is intentional destruction of karmas (Sakarma Nirjara), when it results from penances practised with full consciousness, understanding and intention. In the initial lifetime of the soul un-intentional destruction of karmas proves a purpose, but genuine progress is achieved only with intentional destruction of karmas. If we compare unintentional destruction of karmas with an engine of 5 H.P. then intentional destruction of karmas can be compared with an engine of 500 H.P.
