Fundamentals Of Jainism

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Veer Nirvan Bharti

Page 21

THE NATURE OF KARMA
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THEORY OF TRANSMIGRATION
It must be borne in mind that there can be no bondage to pure mental abstractions, or purely wordy concepts; the word signifies some kind of real fetters, not, indeed, consisting of chains of iron, but of a very subtle and invisible material. It is well to know that nothing but force, in some form or other, is capable of holding things in the condition of slavery, and that no kind of force can be conceived apart from a substance or material of some sort. The bondage of sin must, then, be a bondage of matter, and the obtainment of freedom must consequently imply the destruction of bonds and the removal of the particles of foreign matter from the constitution of the soul.
This is precisely what is implied in the theory of transmigration, which undoubtedly, was well known to and accepted by every rational religion in the past. It is, however, in Jainism alone that we find it placed on a scientific foundation, and though the scriptures of other creeds contain allusions to it, these allusions are nearly always couched in mystic or unintelligible language and are never explained on lines of rational or scientific thought. This is one of the facts which explain the reason why the followers of certain religions, including Christianity, do not now accept the doctrine of re-birth, and range themselves against the creeds which preach it.
That the theory of transmigration is a truth of philosophy will be readily acknowledged by any one who would study the nature of the soul and of the causes upon which depends its ensoulment in a body of matter. As regards the former, that is the nature of the soul, it is sufficient to state that the qualities of feeling, willing and knowing, which are the special attributes of consciousness, are not to be found in matter, and must, for that reason be the property of a substance which differcs in toto from it. The simplicity of the soul is proved by the fact that no one ever feels himself as many, which shows that the subject of knowledge, feeling, perception and memory is not a reality composed of many atoms or parts, but a simple individuality. Soul, then, is a reality which is not indebted to any other substance for its existence, and as such must be deemed to be eternal and