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Chapter 16: Guru's Exposition about the Path and Means of Liberation
190
The bondage of Karma arising from anger,
etc. can be destroyed by forgiveness, etc. That is the evident experience of every one; how can there be any doubt about it?
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Explanation & Discussion:
The pupil had raised the question as to how the infinitely prevailing Karma can be uprooted. One should, however, remember that though the worldly soul has been bonded with Karma since infinite time, there is not a single Karma that prevails infinitely. The bondage of Karma has a time limit, and is stripped off after extending the consequences. But while bearing such consequences, the worldly soul happens to acquire new Karma and that way the bondage continues. If one does not acquire new Karma, the old Karmas will be extinguished on their own in due course.
The Guru here points out how the character-related deluding Karma can be overcome. The impact of that Karma is experienced in the form of passion, which is termed as Kashäy. Craving and aversion are the two basic Kashäys, and are known as Räg and Dwesh, respectively. Jain tradition divides them in four categories of anger, arrogance, deception, and greed. They can be overcome by developing the opposite attributes. Anger for instance, can be overcome by forgiveness, arrogance by modesty, deception by straightforwardness, and greed by contentment. Thus the surest way to overcome those passions is to resort to their respective opposites.
Some people may doubt whether those passions can be effectively overcome by developing the above mentioned attributes. For explaining the effectiveness, let us take the instance of anger, which includes the sense of jealousy,
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