Jain Journal 1982 07

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

Page 27

The Doctrine of Karma in Jainism
Y. KRISHAN
The Jainas postulated a doctrine of karma which is unique in many respects, especially in regard to its genesis. But it is more or less similar to the classical doctrine of karma in its operation.
Nature of Karma and its Genesis
According to the Jainas, karman is a form of matter, pudgala, and atomic in its nature. It has the property of downward gravity, adhogurutva. The Uttarādhyayana Sutral 33 17-18 states that “the number of atoms of every karman is infinite” and is to be found in all the six directions of space. It is this atomic matter which binds all souls. In contradistinction to karman, soul has the property of upward movement, urdhagurutva.?
In the same Sūtra 33 1-15, the karman are said to be of eight kinds :
(i) jñānāvaraniya, those which act as an obstruction to right knowledge.
(ii) darśanāvarantya, those which act as an obstruction to right faith.
(iii) mohantya, those which cause delusion.
(iv) vedaniya, those which lead to experience of pain or pleasure.
(v) äyuh karman, those which determine the gati or the form of existence—in hell, as brute creation, as human being or as god.
(vi) nāma, those which determine the individuality, the specific form of existence, which distinguishes one being from another of the same specie.
1 Hermann Jacobi (tr), Jaina Sutras, S.B.E. XLV Pt. II, Delhi, 1964. 2 Jacobi, Encyclopaedia of Religion & Ethics, Edinburgh 1954, Vol. IV, 484 b.