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I am the Soul
689 On a hot summer day, when the farmer goes to the farm in his cart, the domestic dog goes along. It is quite sunny, and there is enough space below the cart to allow the dog to run along. When the dog cannot bear the heat, it begins to tread under the cart. And then it is proud that 'I am carrying this cart along, if I stop now, the cart too has to stop. It cannot proceed.' What a great illusion! If the dog were to stop, it would be left standing and the cart would go away. Likewise, the jiva believes that ‘Only if I do this the scheme of the universe would run, else it would come to a standstill!' But in this universe, so many animals and humans were born and dead, yet the universe continues to go on. It has never stopped anywhere. So this false pride, that "I do, I do' is the Karma chetana.
The sensation that the self is the bhokta of feelings other than knowledge, and those of happiness and sorrow, is karmaphala chetana. The sensation that prevails at every moment that ‘I endure, I endure’, is the karmaphala chetana.
Why is the term chetana attached here? All the three experiences in the atma, that of knowledge, the feeling of being karta, and the feeling of being bhokta, occur through chetana alone. Experience is a sensation. Sensitivity is there in chetana alone, not in the jada. The jada has no sensation either internal or external. All the sensation occurs through chetana, and hence the term chetana has been attached.
The sages tell us about which sort of jivas are subject to these three chetanas. Immovable uni-sensory jivas have the karmaphala chetana. Immovable jivas do have the ability to sense, therefore they can feel that they are suffering the joy or sorrow resulting from karmas. The experience of joy and sorrow occurs within these jivas, but they are unaware of what they are doing. They cannot experience 'I am doing', although they are doing things. They feel attachment etc. and as a result they have karma bondage. There is karma bondage but no sensation of karma.
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