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JANUARY, 1982
The crucial expression about the liberated jiva is that he "dwells apart from fresh karmic matter". Here one should note that "the performance of action, the form it takes when it enters the ātman, and the form with which it becomes a part of the bound ätman are all called by the same name karma. So when the Jainas say that the atman should get rid of karma (action), we should take the third meaning"."
In Jainism, karma is a form of subtle matter. In this respect the question of the non-contact with fresh karmic matter needs to be closely examined and the use of the expression by Hiriyanna leaves room for some clarification.
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There are basically two ways in which a cut-off of the karmic influx could be visualized: (1) that no fresh karma flows into the jiva, at all or (2) its inflow is matched by its immediate outflow so that no new karma accumulates.
Some descriptions of the process of salvation in Jainism seem to suggest that further non-involvement with karma of the enlightened jiva results from a complete cut-off of the inflow. Thus in the discussion of the two realities (tattvas) samvara and nirjarà it is pointed out that "By a systematic control of the mental and physical activities, any fresh inflow of karmas may be prevented, while certain austerities would destroy the existing karmas"." This seems to suggest that first all inflow of karma is stopped, then all the accumulated karma is exhausted (as contrasted with the simultaneous occurrence of both in Advaita Vedanta). The key point would be the stoppage of all further inflow.
On a closer examination of the evidence, however, it appears that this description of the situation is not quite exact. In Jainism, the progress of the jiva to liberation is visualized as passing through various stages called guṇasthānas. A consideration of the last few gunasthānas is likely to shed some light on the issue :
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If a man be on the twelfth step, kşinamoha guṇasthānaka, he has won freedom for ever not only from greed but from all the ghatin karma, and though the aghatin karma still persist, they have little power to bind the soul: in fact, so limited is their power, that at
P. T. Raju, The Philosophical Traditions of India (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1971), p. 109.
"Harida's Bhattacharyya, op. cit., p. 408.
Ibid., p. 413.
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