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would never be dissociated, and the soul never be emancipated, as is the case with the union of jīva and sky (1811).
Thus Vedic passages and dialectical arguments have led Mandika to believe that the jīva cannot have bondage and emancipation and yet there are statements in the Veda pertaining to these. Mandika is therefore in a fix as to the acceptance or otherwise of these concepts. Mahāvīra proceeds to resolve his doubt (1812).
The stream of jiva-karma is beginningless, since they like seed-sprout are related to each other by the cause-effect relationship. . Hence there is no scope for the alternatives as to the prior existence of one. That the stream or continuum of karma is beginningless can be seen from what follows:
A particular body is the cause of a future karman and is itself the effect of a past karman. Similarly a karman is the cause of a future body, but is itself the effect of a past body. Thus karman and body being related to each other as causeeffect, their streams are beginningless: and so the stream of karman is definitely beginningless. It may be questioned here that this discussion aims at establishing the facts of bondage and emancipation; and it is simply irrelevant to prove that the stream of karman is beginningless. But it is not so. 'Karma' is derived from the root 'k?', to do. What is not done is not karma; and the 'karma' done is itself the bandha or bondage. And if the stream of karman is beginningless, bondage too is such. True, it may again be argued, but this is an attempt to prove the cause-effect relationship between body and karma. What has it do with jiva? And how can this prove that the union of jīva and karma is beginningless ? But the one advancing this argument has not grasped the link properly. The cause-effect relationship does exist between body and karman, but neither would be produced in the absence of kartā, an agent, a doer. Hence it has to be admitted that jīva is the kartā, that it creates the body through the instrumentality of karman; the jīva creates karman also through the instrumentality of body Thus jīva is the kartā of both body and karman, as the potter creating a pot through the instrumentality of the staff is the
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