Doctrine of Karman in Jain Philosophy

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

Page 55

JAIN PHILOSOPHY
CHAP
3. THE INTENSITY (rasa or anubhāga) OF THE KARMAN
Kg. II, 52b., Ps. 564.
Just as the nimba fruit has in the different kinds of preparation a more or less bitter, a sweet dish a more or less sweet taste, so, likewise, the karman practises its effect, according to circumstances, in a more or less intense manner. The intensity of the effects of the karman corresponds to the compactness or the karman-matter; it is conditional upon the weakness of strength of the kaşayas. According to the 4 degrees of the passions, 4 degrees of the strength of the karman are recognised.
With the bad prakytis the strongest, the 4th degree of the rasa is produced by the most violent passions, those of life-long duartion. The 3rd degree is caused by the aprat yākhyānāvaranakasāyas, the 2nd by the pratyākhyānāvarana-kaṣāyas, the 1st (the weakest) by the flaming-up passions. With the good karman-species the samjvalanas cause the 4th (the strongest), the pratyākhyānāvarana-kaşāyas the 3rd, the apratyākhyānāvaraņa-kasāyas the 2nd (the weakest) degree. A rasa of the 1st degree does not exist with the good prakstis. Of the bad praktis only 17 have the rasa of the Ist degree, namely the 5 hindrances, the first 4 veilings of knowledge, the first 3 veilings of undifferentiated cognition, male sex, and the flaming-up passions ; the other bad prakrtis have, like the good ones, only a rasa of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th degree. The reason for the absence of the 1st degree in the case of most of the karman-species is their peculiar arrangement in the gunasthānas, of which more will be said later.
The different rasa of a karma-prakrti can be exemplified most clearly by the deśaghātis. The 4 first veilings of knowledge, for instance, are working so strongly at the anubhāga of the 4th and 3rd degrees that knowledge is quite impossible, at the intensity of the 2nd degree they hinder knowledge totally or partially, at the rasa of the 1st degree only partially (Kg. II, 56b).
The more sinful a jīva is, the longer the duration of his karman, the stronger the effect of his bad, the weaker that of his good prakrtis. whilst with an increased purity the duration of the bound karman and the intensity of the bad prakstis decrease and the rasa of the good prakrtis grows (Kg. II, 43b).
4. THE QUANTITY OF THE PRADEŠAS OF THE KARMAN.
(Kg. II, 68b seq., Ps. 584 seq., Tattv. VIII, 25). The atoms are, according to the number in which they are found together, divided into categories (varganā). Atoms which are found