Doctrine of Karman in Jain Philosophy

Author(s): Hiralal R Kapadia
Publisher: Vijibai Jivanlal Panalal Charity Fund Mumbai

Page 33

JAIN PHILOSOPHY
CHAP.
the inertia of a thing ; like dharma, it pervades the cosmos and comprises an innumerable quantity of space-points.?
4. Pudgala, Matter. This exists in an infinite number of the most minute indivisible atoms (paramānu). Each one of these possesses touch, taste, smell and colour, and can unite itself, after certain laws, with another or several more, till they reach an aggregate (skandha), and by that means produce the heterogeneous phenomena
he empiric world. The aggregate can occupy a greater or smaller number of space-points, the atom only one. Matter is found in a gross (sthüla) and in a subtle (sükşma) condition. Numerous pudgalas in a subtle state occupy the space of a gross one. The gross bodies alone are impenetrable; the subtle ones are not so (Tattv. V. 3c.).
5. Jiva, the Soul. The jīva is distinguished from all other substances mentioned above in that it possesses consciousness and intelligence. There are innumerable souls who, in fact, can influence one another, but who, according to their nature, are quite independent from one another and not connected in some higher unity (brahman). Every jīva possesses infinite qualities (guna). For our purpose, only the following eight are of interest :
1. The faculty of omniscience (kevala-jñāna). 2. The faculty of absolute undifferentiated cognition (kevala
darśana). 3. The superiority over joy and grief (avyābādha). 4. The possession of complete religious truth (samyaktva) and
irreproachable moral conduct (cāritra).
1 Dharma and adharma have in the past often been falsely interpreted. Colebrooke, who, indeed, only culled from Brahmin sources, declared : " Dharmästikāya : the predicament, virtue : inferrable from a right direction of the organs. Dharma is explained as a substance or thing (dravya) from which may be concluded, as its effect, the souls ascent to the region above. Adharmāstikāya : the predicament, vice : or the reverse of the foregoing. Adharma is that which causes the soul to continue embarrassed with body, notwithstanding its capacity for ascent and natural tendency to soar. (Essays on the Religion, etc., 248.) This erroneous apprehension has found many adherents, even to the present day, although Wilson (Rel. Sects. 308) had already, as long as 80 years ago, given the correct interpretation : " It is not very easy to understand these technicalities, for the etymology of the words is of little avail. Astikāya indicates the existence of body, 'Body is'; whilst Dharma signifies virtue, and Adharma vice; but Dharma means also peculiar function or office, in which sense it seems to be here intended ; thus Dhiarmāstikāya is defined to be that which facilitates the motion of animate or inanimate bodies, as water for fish. Adharmästikäya is that which impedes or stops their motion." Once for all, the signification of these two termini has now been settled by Jacobi in his translation of Tattv. V. 17 (1906), and the reason that led the Jains to adopt these two substances has been explained.