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'the karmic matters constituting the trace'. The impression bears fruit in this or the next life, gets attached to the soul when the act is performed and gets released from the soul when the soul bears the fruits of that impression.
The formation of the karma theory is the result of the Jaina thinker's sincere efforts to find answers to questions like, All souls are equal by nature (sounds like Vedanta), what causes inequality between them? What explains the born diversity among different individuals? What is it that makes an individual behave differently and experience different states at different times?
The consistency of the life of a soul - the life stretched in the three divisions of time - depends on karma. The theory of rebirth is a natural corollary of the theory of karma. Every act must be followed by its consequences. Simply put we reap what we sow. Positive acts form and leave auspicious impressions on the soul and negative just the opposite. The former results in happiness and the latter in misery.
Karmic matters are classified into eight fundamental types. They are -
a) Knowledge covering (jnanavarana) karma. b) Vision-covering (darsanavarana) karma. c) Feeling-producing karma (vedaniya). d) Deluding (mohaniya) karma. e) Longevity-determining (gotra) karma. f) Body-making karma. g) Status-determining karma. h) Obstructive (antaraya) karma.
Of these (a), (b), (d) & (h) are inauspicious because knowledge covering karma covers the faculty of knowledge, vision covering karma obscures the faculty of vision, deluding karma deludes and confuses the soul - i.e. obstructs right inclination and conduct and lastly obstructive karma obstructs our attainment of the desired objects. Each of the other karmas could be auspicious or inauspicious. For e.g. body making karmas causing bad & repulsive body-traits are inauspicious karmas and those causing good & attractive bodily traits are auspicious karmas.
Inflow of Karmic Matter (Asrava) The entire universe is full of karmic matter. The inflow of karmic matter into a soul takes place on account of the soul's activities. So, these activities themselves are also regarded as the inflow of karmic matter.
Through soul's mental, vocal and bodily activities the karmic matter is attracted towards the soul, flows into it and gets bound with it. Positive activities like charity, donation, civilized speech, feeling happy for others cause positive karmas while negative activities like violence, theft cause negative karmas.
The auspicious or inauspicious character of bodily or vocal activities depends on the auspicious or inauspicious character of the accompanying mental operation or state. The
