________________
102
JAIN JOURNAL
and body), which are collectively called bhāva karmas. A soul thus modified by its bhāva pratyayas and bhāva karmas becomes a prey of particles of matter which though foreign to its nature freely flow into it and corrupt it. This generates the bondage of the soul or its unhappy encasement in a material body with all its limitations. This is not effected by a God, of which there is none in the Jaina view, but is due to the free inflow of particles of matter which are dravya karma. Thus, with the Jainas, karma is not merely an ethical act, as it is with other systems, but more than that it stands, on the one hand, for the psychical feelings which are springs of our action (bhāva karma), and, on the other, for the actual material corpuscles which, as the result of the operation of bhāva karma, cling to the soul providing its corporeal frame. In other words, karma, and not an abstraction called God, is the real Dispenser in Jaina view and hence the supreme importance of the karma theory.
A discussion on how the particles of karma-matter unite with the soul which is all consciousness is beyond our scope here. The union is peculiar, in-explicable and etei nal, as eternal as the universe itself. This means that the soul is and has been never free until its final liberation. This liberation, however, is not an automatic process nor a gift from above, from a super-human, generous almighty, not even a Tirthankara. This has to be acquired by the individualistic effort of the soul on the lines indicated in the Jaina Scriptures. In the process, a striving soul which is steadfast on the spiritual path uplifts itself stage by stage, sometimes covering two or three at a single effort, in ail fourteen called gunasthānas, by putting up heroically with parişahas (obstacles), twentytwo in number, in the course of its ascent, till it attains the final state of liberation. For the first time, so to say, the soul attains its original' state, though, interestingly enough, this original state it had never experienced in the past due to its eternal association with karma particles. This is the peculiarity of the Jaina stand, sufficiently original, yet sufficiently rational, at no stage tied to the moorings of abstractions or myths.
Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our lives sublime, And departing leave behind us, Footprints on the sands of time, Footprints that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwreck'd brother, Seeing, shall take heart again.
--Longfellow
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
