________________
AN EPITOME OF JAINISM. tude which is only possible when the soul has got rid of all karm i-matter?
To this the Jains reply, it is true that punya ensures comfort, and happiness; but they are but comforts or pleasures of this mundane world. The eternal felicity born of the complete deliverence from all veil and coverning, cannot be the consequence of punya however wisely and carefully may it have been discharged; for the consequences of punya karma are always conditioned in as much as karma and the consequences thereof are possible only in so far as the mundane existence is concerned, but with reference to what is devoid of all name and form, being above all causality, it is not possible. In other words, karma cannot evolve things of permanent character. Karma can produce, transform, conjoin, or re-adjust. Over nothing beyond these has karma any jurisdiction. Thus it is clear that. karma is possible only in sånsår.
Some may remark that karma done with judiciousness and indifference to the consequences thereof might result in the eman
610
