Introduction to Jainism

Author(s): Rudi Jansma, Sneh Rani Jain
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 91

KARMA
89
types of diseases, setbacks, circumstances, and other fruits of karma we can meet. No two individuals have the same karma, not even identical twins. Every thought, every emotion, and every feeling produces its own soul vibration, its own 'color' as it were, and fits, I suppose that a particular karmic molecular structure fits each of these.
Jainism is unique in Indian thought with this "materialistic” (pudgalic, I should say) view of karma. In the holistic approaches of other systems - as is particularly emphasized in modern Theosophy - every atom in the infinite cosmos contains in principle everything that constitutes the cosmos. If so, it is not possible to think of any phenomenon in the cosmos as devoid of life and consciousness. That also applies to thoughts, feelings, “vibrations” and karmas. That does not imply that all existing things have their own soul – my computer has no soul, life or consciousness of its own. But all units that are actively composed by nature itself, such as molecules, have a jīva, says Theosophy. In this, Jainism differs remarkably from other philosophical systems. The Jain explanation may, however, help us to understand the mechanism of karma.
The philosophy of karma
In relation to the jīvic or ensouled, i.e. living, substance, cause and effect are directly related to the moral tendencies of the conscious jīvas. The jīva or soul is in its essential nature eternal and perfect, and is characterized by infinite intelligence, infinite peace, faith and power. Its knowledge is boundless. The soul is by itself formless, but during embodiment or incarnation it takes the form and extension of the body in which it resides. The jīva is indivisible and individual. The soul's characteristic is consciousness (cetanā). Consciousness is of three kinds: 1) consciousness or experience of pure knowledge in its full extent;36 it is found only in the Omniscient, but it begins to be experienced from the 4th spiritual stage of development; 2) consciousness of