Basic Principles Of Jainism

Author(s): Narayan Lal Kachhara
Publisher: Narayan Lal Kachhara

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THE DOCTRINE OF KARMA
"Our deeds still travel with us from a far,
And what we have been makes us what we are"
- George Elliot The Doctrine of Karma occupies a more significant position in the Jaina philosophy than it does in the other Indian philosophies. It is a matter of common experience that happiness and misery are experienced without any apparent reason. Good men suffer and wicked persons appear to enjoying life. Persons with merit and possessing high educational qualifications may seem to remain at the bottom while people with lesser abilities rise high, persons with pious character are found suffering, facing difficulties of various types. These inequalities are explained away popularly by reference to fate or destiny. Others say that "there is a Divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will". Are men and women helpless creatures at the mercy of some force, known or unknown?
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 is the basic principle of Jainism that every Jiva or soul is possessed of consciousness, and of upayoga comprising the powers of perception and knowledge. It has no form but is the doer of all actions; it is the enjoyer of the fruits of its actions, and is a Siddha in its state of perfection.
If these are the characteristics of Jiva how is it that a Jiva finds itself entangled in the Samsara suffering life 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 in forms and bodies which are blind to their real nature.
The answer to this enigma is to be found in the operation of karmic matter which draws a veil over the natural qualities of the soul crippling his powers in varying degrees. Jainism starts with the premise that the soul is found entangled with karma from eternity. It is the primary function of religion to stop the influx and mitigate the presence of karma with the soul and to show the path of liberation and the methods through which the soul could achieve perfection.
What then is the nature of karma? In ordinary parlance karma means action, deed or work. Sometimes, it means act of ritualistic nature enjoined by the scriptures. In Jaina philosophy, it means a form of matter or pudgala. It is inert and lifeless. It is very fine and
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