Jain Journal 1973 01

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

Page 44

JANUARY, 1973
135
religion is directed to the great central truth in every religion, to evolve a God out of man.” (Essentials of Hinduism, p. 36).
The embodied mundane Jiva can rise to the highest Status of Godhood. The reputed Jaina scholar C. R. Jain's elucidation is illuminating : “The difference between an unevolved Jiva and a fully evolved one is exactly the same as that between a dirty mirror and a clean onę. Both are alike in respect of their reflecting power, but not in reference to the actual functioning thereof. The ordinary Jiva is like a dirty mirror, which has to be rubbed and polished before it can be expected to take its place by the side of the finest specimens of the class.". (Introduction to The Paramātma.Prakasa, p: 6)
It is argued that the soul will not be punished or rewarded if we do not accept any universal ruler of this world. According to the Jaina theory the mundane soul acquires karmas, which are the causes for the happiness or misery of the individual. No one can escape from the clutches of karmas. A burglar or a criminal can befool a magistrate and move about scotfree ; on the other hand, an innocent poor fellow may be punished by the dispenser of justice. Such practices are utterly absent under the just and exact working of the karma, which is based upon the inviolable law of cause and effect. The manifold conditions of sentient beings are due to the fruition of karmas acquired by the Jīva in the past. In fact, I am the captain of my soul and the architect of my bright or dismal future'. This message of Selfreliance is the corner-stone of Jaina philosophy.
The nature of the karmas has been thus explained. The mundane soul has got vibrations through body, mind or speech. The molecules, which assume the form of mind, body or speech, engender vibrations in the Jiva, whereby an infinite number of subtle atoms is attracted and assimilated by the Jīva. The assimilated group of atoms is termed as ‘karmas'. In Sanskrit literature the word karma ordinarily stands for action, but in Jaina philosophical terminology it has a different connotation. The effect of karma is visible in the multifarious conditions of the mundane soul. As a red hot iron ball when dipped into water attracts and assimilates its particles or as a magnet draws iron fillings towards itself due to the magnetic force, in the like manner the soul propelled by its psychic experiences of infatuation, anger, pride, deceit, and avarice attracts karmic molecules and becomes polluted by the karmas. The psychic experience is the instrumental cause of this transformation of matter into a karma ; as the clouds are instrumental in the change of sun's rays into a rainbow.