Basic Principles Of Jainism

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

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wrong knowledge or lack of right knowledge or absence of faith in reality. One who suffers from this infirmity does not use his reason or is incapable of forming any definite idea.
Avirati (lack of control) is also of live kinds: himsa (injury), anartha (falsehood), chaurya (stealing), abrahma (incontinence) and parigrahankha (desire to possess which is not needed). These five Aviratis are equated with avratas or vowlessness.
Pramada or inadvertence is also of five kinds: Vikatha is reprehensible talk about any individual, state, organization, king, women, etc. Kashaya is of four kinds: anger, pride, deceit and greed. Indriyan or the five senses are liable to commit inadvertent acts of various kinds. Nidra or sleep, where it is unnatural may be the source of careless mistakes. Raga is the fifth kind of pramada; it is the result of attachment to different objects.
Yoga refers to activities of the body, mind and speech which are of various kinds like true, untrue and mixed.
Kashayas comprise anger, pride, deceit, and greed. These vary according as they are mild, intense or great.
Bandha or Bondage
How does the inflow of karma bind the soul? The process is illustrated by giving the example of a person who has fully smeared his body with oil and stands out in the open where there is wind. It is natural that particles of dust should stick to the body of such a person. Similarly when a soul is rendered weak by various kinds of thought activities, it gives room for the particles of karmic mater to enter. It is the invariable process that the bhavasravas or the thought activities are the direct and proximate causes of dravyasravas or influx of matter.
It is the conscious state of mind that binds the karma with the soul when the latter is excited by any of the causes like passion or aversion, mentioned above. Bandha is also of two kinds: bhava-bandha and dravya-bandha. Bhava-bandha is alliance of the soul with the mental activities which are the result of excitement, passion, wrong belief, etc.
Dravya-bandha is that bondage which results from the union between the soul and the interpenetrated karmic matter. Bandha implies necessarily the assimilation of matter existing in many pradesas by the soul. On account of differences in vibrations in the soul-activity, the karmic particles enter and become one and stay with the pradesa of the soul. They come in infinite numbers every moment to each soul pradesa.
The bondage of karma is of four kinds according to its prakriti (nature or type), sthiti (duration), anubhaga (intensity,) and pradesa (mass or quantity or space-points). Mention has been made of the fact that there are eight kinds of karmas like Jnanavaraniya, Darshanavaraniya, etc. Naturally, therefore, must be difference in the nature of the each kind of the eight karmas. It must follow as a corollary that the bondage must be of various nature.
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