Doctrine of Liberation in Indian Religion

Author(s): Shivkumarmuni
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

Page 95

THE DOCTRINE OF KARMA AND TRANSMIGRATION
Jiva is in the cycle of existence so long as he associates himself with the activities of mind, body and speech. activities leads to mokşa.
Freedom from these
Samsara is thus a designation of the process of birth and death. Samsara is also sometimes described as five-fold change because of the change of matter (dravya), sphere (kşetra), time (kāla), thought (bhava) and destiny (bhava). The soul has been in samsara from the beginningless time; in the course of its journeying through samsara it has accepted and given up innumerable times one by one all the atoms of the universe, all the space-points or spheres, all the molecules of time, all the passions and all the destinies including the hells.
At the root of samsära is mithyatva or perversity of outlook which causes the rise of karmic particles and their attraction by the self (jiva). Mithyatva is the root of samsara or the worldly existence."" This principle is acceptable to the Buddhists also. Avidya or ignorance which is another name of mithyatva, is regarded as the main cause of the cycle of birth and death in Buddhism. The Buddhist doctrine of karma and rebirth is somewhat different from that of Jainism. Human personality is a whole of the five aggregates, viz,, rūpa, vedanā, samjñā, samskāra and vijñāna, which is formed according to the karmas or actions, either virtues or vices of the past life. The action of the present life will form the base for the future one. This process of transmigration is caused by avidya according to the Buddhists. PROCESS OF TRANSMIGRATION
Regarding the transition of the self or soul from one body to another in the process of transmigration, the Hindu view is that as a goldsmith from the gold of an ornament prepares another ornament by melting the same gold, so the soul creates a new body in the new birth.78 The soul shapes its new body out of its existing element like the potter who makes his pots from the existing clay.79 The soul changes the old body into a new body in the next birth as one changes the old garment by putting on a new one.80 The Jaina view asserts that at death the self is associated with taijasa and karmana body (śarīra) and before transmigration to new body it
76. 77.
78.
Samadhitantra, 62
samsaramula-biam micchattam-, Bhattaparinnaya, IV. 591.
Bṛhadaranyaka-Upanisad, 4.4.3.
Yajnavalkyasmṛti III. 146.
79.
80. Bhagavadgita, II.22
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