Harmless Soul

Author(s): W J Johnson, Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 69

Umāsvāti's Jainism 55 activities are the causes of bondage. [8:1]
Because of its connection with passion, a soul takes on particles of matter liable to become karma. This is bondage. [8:2 (2/3)]
Bondage is of four kinds, according to the nature of karmic matter (prakrti), the duration of karma (sthiti), the intensity of the fruition of karma (anubhāva), and the quantity of space-points of karma (pradeśa). [8:3 (4)]26
According to the commentaries, prakrti and pradeśa are caused by yoga, sthiti and anubhāva by kaşāya. It is yoga which attracts karma to the soul in the first place, deciding its type and quantity, and kasāya which causes it to adhere, deciding its duration and intensity. Thus, according to Tattvārtha Sūtra 8:2, it is kasāya which underlies all bondage (i.e. it is the cause of all himsā and thus the cause of all pramāda as well).
However, in the list of the five causes of bondage given at Tattvārtha Sūtra 8:1, kaşāya and pramāda are listed as independent causes of bondage.
According to a modern commentator, there are three traditions regarding the number of the causes of bondage: viz. there are either five causes, as given above, or four (pramāda is excluded), or there are just two, kaşāya and yoga.27 But these traditions can be harmonised by taking pramāda as a type of either avirati or kaşāya, and then by viewing mithyadarśana and avirati as not essentially different from kaşāya. This leaves kasāya and yoga as the only distinct causes of bondage, which is Umāsvāti's conclusion.
In some canonical texts the five causes of bondage
26 mithyādarśanāviratipramādakasāyayogā bandhahetavaḥ
[TS 8:1] sakaṣāyatvāj jīvaḥ karmaṇo yogyān pudgalān adatte sa bandhah [TS 8:2 (2/3)]
prakstisthityanubhāvapradeśās tadvidhayaḥ [TS 8:3 (4)] 27 Sukhlalji's trans. and commentary on TS, p. 298f.