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JANUARY, 1982
99
“those difficult to destroy, or according to another interpretation those which destroy omniscience : jñānāvaraṇlya, darśanāvarantya, mohanlya and antarāya". 10 Aghātin karma are “those easy to destroy, or those which do not destroy omniscience : vedantya, ayu, nāma and gotra" 11 As the jiva progresses to salvation he is left only with aghātin karma which “have little power to bind the soul” 12
The second consideration involves the Jaina practice of “sallekhana or voluntary self-starvation” to which Lord Mahavira is himself believed to have resorted.13 Since self-mortification is believed to exhaust karma this practice would make soteriological sense as ensuring that no karma at all was left clinging to the soul in the end.
The basic point suggested by these considerations seems to be that it is not so much that after enlightenment the living jiva is totally free of karma but rather that his karma evaporates virtually as soon as it arises so that in effect he is free from it.
IV
The conclusion is perhaps best presented in terms of a metaphor drawn from quantum physics wherein light is sometimes treated as a particle and sometimes as a wave. So long as the jiva is in bondage, karma consists of subtle particles of matter that stick to his soul but once he is liberated his karma is more like a wave—arising and exhausting itself continually till the liberated jiva finally passes away.
10 Ibid., p. 190, fn. 2. 11 Ibid., fn. 2. It is remarkable how closely aghatin karmas correspond to the
category of prarabdha karmas in Advaita Vedanta.
Ibid., p. 190. 13 R. C. Zachner, ed., A Concise Encyclopedia of Living Faiths (Boston: Beacon
Press, 1969), p. 261.
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