Fundamentals Of Jainism

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

Page 23

THE NATURE OF KARMA
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companion of the soul in all its different forms assumed in the course of its evolution in the samsára. Both these bodies undergo changes of form from time to time, thereby leading to different kinds of births; they are destroyed only when moksha is attained, which means perfect freedom of the soul from all kinds of matter.
The necessity for the existence of the shuttle body karmâna śar ira (#781 Tit) would also become clear by taking into consideration the effect its absence would have on the soul of a dcad man, i.e. a disembodied spirit, Obviously the absence of all kinds of limiting and crippling influences would at once enable such a disembodied soul to manifest its natural perfection in the fullest degree, making it the equal of Gods and the enjoyer of the supreme status of Paramâtman (godhood) at a stroke. Death, then, instead of being the dreaded foe, as it is considered now, would be the greatest benefactor of all kinds of living beings, and the attainment of supreme bliss, to say nothing of omniscience, omnipotence, and all those other divine qualities and powers whuch men associate with their gods, would be possible with the greatest case, not only to every virtuous jiva, but to every rogue, rascal and sinner as well. Even the act of murdering a fellowbeing would have to be regarded as a highly meritorious deed, and suicide acclaimed as the shortest cut to the heaven of the highest divinity. Dogs and cats and the whole host of creeping things and the like would also, on such a supposition, find their differences of development abolished at a stroke. The path of salvation, too, would no longer consist in Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct, but would lie on the point of the butcher's knife or through the friendly grave of a cannibal's stomach.
The absurdity of the proposition need not be dilated upon any further; it is a sufficient refutation of the notion that death effects a complete severance between spirit and matter, and shows that the harmâna śarira never leaves the soul till perfection is attained. The question, when was the karmana sharira formed for the first time ?- does not arise; it could only arise on the supposition that a perfectly pure spirit had descended or condescended to enter into bondage, but this has been alrcady seen to be an