Essence of Jainism

Author(s): Sukhlal Sanghavi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 57

Essence of jainism
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contradiction in the same Jiva also ? The answer to this question has led to the birth of Karmavidyā. The belief that the state of the Jiva is according to his Karma explains this dissimilarity. It again adds that the Jiva is free in the performance of good or bad deeds or in non-performance. The Jiva can resort to good or bad effort at its will; that is again the force that shapes its present and future. The Karmavada states that the present is shaped by the past and the future by the present. The concord of all the three is mutually dependent only on Karmavada. Only this is the basis of the theory of rebirth.
The real fact is that only ignorance and attachment and jealousy are Karmas. Failing in the correct perspective about one's own Self and others is ignorance, or, according to Jainism; Darśana-moha-illusion in the realm of philosophical realizatioß. Other traditions, Sāṁkhya, Bauddha etc. kow this as Avidya. The temperamental variations that are born or the incilnations that have arisen because of the ideas of good and bad born of igoorance are, in brief, designated attachment and jealousy. Actually only attachment and jealousy inspire violence, but the root of all this lies in ignorance and illusion or Avidyā-nescience. That is the reason why only ignorance is the root of violence. All Armavadi disciplines are unanimous in the matter.
The form of Karma that is described above is known as Bhava-Karma in the Jain terminology. It is a typical psychical effect on the Ātmā. This Bhava-Karma attracts the extremely microscopic gross atoms that ever envelop the Ātma: and endow it with a typical form. These gross atoms in a heap. that have acquired a typical 'form are known as Dravyákarma or Karmaņa body. They go with the Jiva in the next life and become the "background for the creation of the gross body. If we view the matter superfluously, we might feel that the idea about Dravyakurma is found in the Kormavidyā only of Jainism, but that is not really so, if we probe deep into the matter. Sāṁkhya, Yoga, Vedanta etc. describe the subtle body or the linga Sarira that remains with the soul in its several births. It is contended that
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