Jain Journal 1972 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 22

APRIL, 1972
this bondage by forms of karmic matter. It is a bondage mysterious and timeless. This karmic envelope is called in Jaina parlance kārmaṇaśarira. In some Indian philosophies it is called linga-sarira. The jiva is encased in the kärmaṇa-sarira from times immemorial, and in consequence, subject to the impulses and reactions, caused by karma. Attracted by these impulses and reactions new karmic atoms of matter are constantly flowing in and attaching themselves to the karmic envelope of the jiva, and it is as a result of this instreaming and accumulating karma that the jiva has to whirl on the wheel of sansara and pass through the alternating experiences of pleasure and pain.
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Karmic matter attaching itself to the soul assumes four forms : (1) Prakṛti-bandha, (2) Sthiti-bandha, (3) Anubhava-bandha, and (4) Pradesa-bandha. When karmic matter attaches itself to the soul, its development is determined by the then action of the jiva's mind, speech and body, that is to say, by the goodness or badness, intensity or dullness of that action and it assumes a nature having the capacity to cover up certain specific attributes of the soul. This form of bondage is called prakṛti-bandha. It develops infinite variants in itself according to the differing energies of the mind, speech and body of the jiva. But roughly, they can be subsumed under eight heads: (1) Jñānā varaṇiya, (2) Darśanavaraṇiya, (3) Vedaniya, (4) Mohaniya, (5) Ayu, (6) Nāma, (7) Gotra, and (8) Antarāya.
Jñanavaraṇīya karma covers up the soul's power of knowledge. Darśanavaraniya clouds its power of perception. Vedaniya karma overcasts its intrinsic, infinite and unhorizoned bliss and makes the jiva feel the evanescent pleasures and pains of the world. That which generates delusion in the jiva in regard to its own nature and makes it identify itself with or be attached to non-self, is called mohaniya karma. The karma which engulfs the soul's eternal poise in its unconditioned selfbeing and compels the jiva to asume a body for a fixed period of time in each successive birth, is called the ayu karma. That which eclipses the soul's formlessness and constrains it to put on forms, and under whose influence the jiva comes to have perfect or deformed limbs, fame or obloquy, and various other representations of itself, is called nāma karma. That which covers up the soul's superiority to the worldly distinctions of high and low, and forces it to be born in superior or inferior state of human society, is called gotra karma. And that which envelops the soul's inherent force and obstructs the jiva's free enjoyment of the riches of the world or its generosity in charity, is called antarāya karma. There are many subdivisions of these eight principal categories of prakṛti-bandha.