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karman; svabhäva would in essence be the same as karman. If it be incorporcal, it could not, like akaśa (ether), give rise to any effect, much less produce body, etc. or pleasure-pain. As the effects, body, etc. are corporeal, the cause svabhāva too must be corporea), and if it be corporeal, it would be the same as karma as explained above, only with a different name.
If svabhäva is looked upon as non-causality* (that is to say, effects have no cause-), then ass's horn should also be produced as much as jar, etc.; but this is not what we find, since ass's horn has no cause; hence every effect must have a cause and svabhāva cannot be interpreted as non-causality (1916-7).
If svabhäva be an attribute of a thing, it would be a transformation of jīva and karman, called punya-pāpa. This transformation can be established as the basis of the inference of the effect from the cause and of the cause from the effect. This is as follows: Acts of charity etc. and injury etc. are causes, therefore they must have their effects and these effects are nothing but the transformations of jīva and karman in the form of punya and pāpa as the act of ploughing etc. has rice, barley, wheat, etc. as its effect. It has been said : "Samāsu tulyam viņa māsu tulyar satışv asac càpy asatīşu sac ca; phalam kriyāsy ity atha yannimittam tad dehinām so'sti nu
ko'pi dharmaḥ. -'Like activities bear like fruit, and unlike activities too yield like fruit; at times there is no fruit even when activities are undertaken and at other times there is the fruit even without activities. This shows that the fruit of activities does not depend entirely on them; it must be dependent on some attribute of embodied beings; karman is this attribute.'
Inference from effect is as follows : Body, etc, must have a cause because they are effects, like jar, etc.. Karman is this cause of body, etc.. This has been discussed at length in the conversation
* This alternative has been differently answered in the comm. on Gātha 1643 and in Gāthā 1791.
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