Interpretation Of Jain Ethics

Author(s): Charlotte Krause
Publisher: Yashovijay Jain Granthmala

Page 11

(whether as a god, or as a man, or as an animal, whether beautiful, or ugly, short or tall etc.), and its rank and position.
With all the sub-classes, there are 158 (or 148 resp.) kinds of Karmas, on which the fate of the individual depends, like that of a slave on his master's caprices, only with the particularity, that the master of the soul is a selfelected one, drawn near by the actions, committed in its various existences. At the due points of time, the respec tive Karmas exercise their power, and in the measure in which they do so, they are being automatically reduced: a process which is called Akama Nirjara, i.e. Spontaneous Consumption. On the other hand, by reacting upon the various Karma-imposed experiences which it has to undergo, the individual binds new Karmas, which, in their turn, manifest themselves, indirectly call forth the binding of new Karmas, etc. in an eternal circle.
Still, man is not quite so helpless in the face of Karma, as it might appear. For, though even the passions arising within him, are predestined by Karma, still he can make himself the master of Karma, by his own free will and initiative. He can hinder new Karmas from entering his soul by a process called Samvara, i.e. Repression, and he can also reduce the predestined duration as well as intensity of latent Ghati-Karmas bound before, he can suppress, and keep suppressed, the most obnoxious of them, and he can also definitely annihilate all of them, by efforts of highest energy and self-concentration, and, thereby, bring about a complete consumption of the neutral Aghati-Karmas too: a process called Sakama Nirjara, 1.e Intended Consump
tion.