Jain Journal 1981 01

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

Page 38

JANUARY, 1981
Kinds of Karma:
The divisions of karma into punya and papa (virtue and vice), kušala and akusala (good and bad), subha and asubha (auspicious and inauspicious), dharma and adharma (merit and demerit) are acceptable to all Indian systems of thought. At the initial stage of speculation on karma there appears to be two divisions of it. viz. punya and papa (virtue and vice) or subha and aśuba (auspicious and inauspicous).48 All Indian systems of thought have accepted these two kinds of karma: punya and pāpa (virtue and vice) as bondage and determined their respective objectives to be free from both. Therefore, conscientious man have admitted the favourable feeling (vedana) produced from karma as only pain without having accepted it as pleasure.49
The two divisions of karma into punya (virtue) and pupa (vice) have been made from the points of view of experience or feeling. Besides, having kept in view for understanding karma as good and bad, four divisions of it have been made in the Buddhist and Yoga philosophies, viz. kṛṣṇa (black), sukla (white), sukla-kṛṣṇa (white and black) and aśukla-kṛṣṇa (non-white and non-black).50 Kṛṣṇa (black) is pāpa (vice), sukla (white) is punya (virtue), śukla-kṛṣṇa (white and black) is the mixture of punya and papa (virtue and vice) aśukla-kṛṣṇa (non-white and non-black) is none of the two, because this karma is of only dispassionate persons, the fruit is neither pleasure not pain. The reason is this that there do not take place rāga (attachment) and dveşa (aversion) in it.51
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Besides these, the division of karma has been made from the points of view of kṛtya (to be performed), pākadāna (ripening) and päkaphala (ripening fruit). In the Buddhist Abhidharma and Visuddhimagga equally52 karma has been divided into four kinds from the point of view of kṛtya, four from that of pākadāna and four from that of päkaphala i.e. in all twelve kinds of karma. But in the Abhidharma four more divisions of karma have been made from the point of view of pakasthana (ripening place). On the basis of these views, in the Yogadarśana also53
48 Brhadaranyaka, 3. 2. 13; Prasnopanisad, 3.7; Pancamakaramgrantha from 15; TS., 8.21; Sankhyakarika 44; Visuddhimagga, 17.88; Yogasutra, 2. 14; Yogabhasya, 2. 12; Nyayamanjari, p. 472; PPBhs., p. 637, 643.
duhkhameva sarvam vi
49 parinamatapasamskaraduhkhairgunavrttivirodhacca
vekinah,
Yogasutra, 2. 15.
50 Dighanikaya, 3. 1. 2; Buddhacarya, p. 496; Yogasutra, IV. 7. 51 Yogasutra, 4.7.
52 Abhidhammattha Sangraha, 5.19; Visuddhimagga, 19.14-16. 53 Yogasutra, 2. 12-14.