ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 02

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 163

The karmic fruition has four varieties like the four bonds. For example the durational fruition has two varieties:
1. With effort 2. Natural
Dissociation when total i.e. when all the karmic bondages are eliminated from empirical soul, then the empirical soul attains the status of pure soul / pure soul / Moksa.
4.0 States or Modes of Karmas Jains do not subscribe to Fatalist and Theists theories and give significant commitment to self-reliance. This means that the soul has innate capability or energy (vīrya) to influence its own future even though karmas are extremely powerful and affect soul in many ways shown earlier. Thus soul is the material (upādāna kārana) cause of its defilement and obscuration. Its energy attribute actively differentiates the karmic matter into appropriate efficient cause (nimmita-kārana). The energy attribute of the soul can affect the matter karmas in eight different ways (out of ten possible states of karmas marked by * below out of ten states of karmas). Thus changing the state of the karmas can change auspicious and inauspicious results of karmic activation. Refer Bhagavati-sūtras no 23, 24, 44, 47, 357 and Gommattasāra (karmakānda) gātās 441-450. This indeed is the cornerstone of the Jain doctrine of karma and puruşārtha / self-effort and refuting fatalists (niyativāda) and theists i.e. no supreme power being benevolent for our achievements or luck. Even though we are born with some past karma and associated luck, still we can change our destiny by our efforts.
An empirical soul makes special efforts, like undertaking meritorious activities (e.g. bhakti / devotion, service to others, charity etc that are practiced to enhance the effectiveness of merit (punya) karmas or to reduce the duration and intensity of de-meritorious karmas, penance and observing vows etc to be able to continue performing spiritual purification activities so as to achieve stoppage and dissociation of karmas. Thus the entire path of spiritual purification is based on these capabilities of the empirical soul and different states of
the karmas.
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STUDY NOTES version 5.0