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An Interpretation of Jaina Ethics
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produces pain. It is good Karma, or Punya, if produced by good action, and produces happiness; but only imperfect, vanishing happiness. The Karmas destine the whole chain of existences of an individual. They are divided into two main classes, viz., GhātiKarmas or Destructive Karmas and Aghāti-Karmas or Non-destructive Karmas. The Ghāti-Karmas are four in number ( viz., Jñänăvaraṇīya, Darśanāvaraṇīya, Mohanīya and Antarāya Karmas ), and obscure each one of the four original qualities of the soul from displaying itself. The Aghāti-Karmas, which are likewise four ( viz., Vedaniya, Āyusya, Nāma and Gotra Karmas ), predestine the soul's sufferings and pleasures, the duration of its existences, the quality and shape of the body in which it incarnates, ( whether as a god, or as a man, or as an animal, whether beautiful, or ugly, short or tall etc. ), and its rank and position.
With all the sub-classes, there are 158 (or 148 resp. ) kinds of Karmas, on which the fate of the individual depends like that of a slave on his master's caprices, only with the particularity, that the master of the soul is a self-elected one, drawn near by the actions, committed in its various existences. At the due points of time, the respective Karmas exercise their power, and in the measure in which they do so, they are being automatically reduced : a process which is called Akāma Nirjarā, i.e., spontaneous consumption. On the other hand, by reacting upon the various Karma imposed experiences which it has to undergo, the individual binds new Karmas, which, in their turn, manifest themselves, indirectly call forth the binding of new Karmas, etc. in an eternal circle.
Still, man is not quite so helpless in the face of Karma, as it might appear. For though even the passions arising within him, are predestined by Karma, still he can make himself the master of Karma, by his own free will and initiative. He can hinder new Karmas from entering his soul by a process called Saṁvara, i.e., repression, and he can also reduce the predestined duration as well as intensity of latent Ghāti-Karmas bound before, he can suppress,
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