Jain Journal 1973 01

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

Page 46

JANUARY, 1973
137
48 minutes. This point is made clear by the example of sun's rays, which when converged on one point ignite fire, but when they diverge they do not exhibit the power of burning. The destruction of karmas in the fire of self-absorption does not mean annihilation of the atoms, but it denotes the dissociation of karmic molecules from the soul. Democritus said : “Ex-nihilonihil in nihiljum nihil potest re verti.” Nothing can ever become something nor can something become nothing. This principle is corroborated by the Hindu scripture Gitā also (2.16).
The contact of karmas with the soul has no beginning. As the relation of seed and tree has no beginning because every seed is got from a tree, which comes out of some other seed ; thus the connection of seed and tree is without beginning. When the seed is burnt in fire it will never regerminate into a tree. In the like manner when the seed of dispositional impurities, attachment and aversion is burnt by right type of penances and austerities, the karmas are completely destroyed. There is no logical connection between infinity and endlessness. The state of Nirvāna or liberation has a beginning, but no end.
When the Jīva has noble thoughts of love, sympathy, compassion and the like, auspicious or agreeable karmic matter clings to the soul. When the period of fruition arrives the soul is placed in favourable circumstances and it enjoys superb pleasures of the world ; on the other hand a person possessed of callous heart derives pleasures in the distress and agony of the miserable soul. He is not moved by the pitiable plight of the sick, disabled, hungry, decrepit or the distressed, whereby inauspicious karmic matter is accumulated and consequently the Jiva suffers pain and untold miseries and does not obtain desired peace and happiness. The pleasure or pain obtained by means of auspicious or inauspicious karmas lasts for a limited period. Its duration and intensity depend upon the pitch of our disposition, when our soul had accumulated the karmic molecules by mental or vocal or physical activities or vibrations.
These karmas have been classified into eight kinds :
(1) Jñānāvaranīya Karma is that which obstructs knowledge. It acts as a hindrance in the attainment of Omniscient knowledge, the inherent and natural right of every soul. It has been compared to a curtain, which obstructs the vision of our desired objects enveloped thereby. Due to this very karma we come across innumerable differences in the faculty of comprehension amongst the mundane souls. This karma explains why one is a brilliant genius and other is an idiot.