Fundamentals Of Jainism

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

Page 25

THE NATURE OF KARMA
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(4) "Whosoever slayeth Cain vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold."-Genesis, IV, 15.
(5) "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me. '-Deut. V. 9.
We could cite many other similar passages from the scriptures, but it would serve no useful purpose to multiply authorities. So far as the Vedas are concerned, they are intelligible only on the hypothesis of a wholesale personification of occult powers and metaphysical abstractions. The Hindu Puranas even attribute deception to their godhead, such as his appearing in the form of a beautiful female at the churning of the ocean, where he not only prevented the asuras from drinking the nectar of immortality by making them fall in love with his female form, but also immediately slew Rahu, who, perceiving the fraud that was being practised, had managed to secure a drop of the life-giving amrita (nectar of life).
None of these attributes are appropriate to the godhead, but they are fully in harmony with the personification of karma, as the lord or master of the destinies of living beings. The word Ishvara, the popular name of the deity in Hinduism, only signifies, in its literal sense, powerful, able, capable, hence, a lord
or master.
The truth of the matter is that the moderns have completely lost sight of the fact that the theological god, or Ishvara, is a pure impersonation of karma, and, therefore, feel baffled in the presence of such statements as those already quoated from the Bible and the Qur'an. It is this impersonation of karmic power, as the ruler of the world, which stands in the way of progress by demoralizing the hearts of men with unholy superstition and awe of his supreme sway, irresistible might and vindictive unforgiving nature.
To revert to the point under consideration, it is now clear that a pure spirit cannot possibly be compelled to re-enter the bondage of 'sin' when once it has attained to perfection, and that the condition of none of the souls now involved in the samsura has ever been that of perfect purity at any time in the past.