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THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES
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is called avipāka-Nirjarā. From another point of view, when the Karmas are made to fall away by exertion and penances, the Nirjară is called sakāma or intentional Nirjarā. Some Karmas have their period of maturity or enjoyment fixed. After the lapse of the period when the Karmas are enjoyed or suffered, they disappear of their own accord. This is called savipāka Nirjarā.
The soul regains its purity after the Karmas have fallen off either due to enjoyment or destruction. Kundakunda Ācārya has dealt with this subject in verses 144 to 146 of the Pañcāstikāya. According to him, a person who has practised a number of austerities and observed rules for the purification of his activities, will be able to shed away many of his Karmas. The austerities are both internal and external. A person who understands the real nature of the self and the futility of attachment to objects of the world will have right knowledge and thereby acquire the ability to destroy the Karmas due to his purity of thought and action. He alone will be able to cast away his Karmas who on account of his right knowledge contemplates on the self with full concentration.
Kundakunda has emphasised the importance of right belief in shedding of Karmas.18 Right belief creates an awareness of of the transitoriness of the worldly objects, checks the operation of possions and does not create entanglements by way of new attachments. The activities of thought of such a person would be pure and will not tend to forge new bondage of Karmas. Right belief connotes and means a right outlook of the soul. There is a firm conviction about the destructive and debilitating nature of the Karmas and hence they are countered by the virbrations of righteousness born of right belief. Such a person knows that both pain and pleasure are due to bondage of bad or good Karmas. He is always on his guard and ever conscious of his pure self. He realises that the nature of his soul is pure knowledge and his true path is one of liberation. A person who is not a right believer remains ignorant, perverse and indecisive about the true nature of his self. He therefore indulges in such thought
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