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KARMA
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human friend somewhere in the past. Would you have killed him then?
What is more important perhaps is that the theory of transmigration of the jīva through a variety of bodies in no way contradicts the theory of gradual evolution. It is most probable that a soul which is clothed in a particular vehicle according to its karma produces causes in line with its present state. The next embodiment (on earth) will then be related to the present one, but just a little bit higher, due to the inherent upward drive of the soul, and due to the added experiences. It is however next to unthinkable that great jumps upward would be made at once, simply because a soul in its present stage is unable to create the cause for a much higher karmic result. On the other hand, a great fall is also improbable, because that would mean the complete exhaustion of the karmas which brought us to our present state, as well as counteraction of all the karmas that were brought about in the present state. It is unimaginable that a higher being, such as a human, would at once and perhaps for ever lose all the merits – i.e. all the typical human faculties of sense development and mental and intuitive development - which have brought him to this situation, due to a few vibrations of a lower kind. It is more plausible that relatively small modifications take place from incarnation to incarnation, such as peculiarities of the human character or physical or psychological constitution, or small jumps from species to related species within the animal or plant kingdoms. The general rule would then be: once a human, always a human, at least for a long period of time; and once an animal, or plant, or mineral, always an animal, or plant, or mineral, until the time when the soul creates the cause for embodiment in a higher form. But, according to many Jains, intermediate incarnations may take place in lower realms, as a result of certain actions and attitudes that squander the human life by building up mountains of sins.
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