Jain Journal 1982 07

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

Page 31

JAIN JOURNAL
which are exhausted or annihilated before their due time, that is prematurely by purificatory practices. As the Tattvārtha, 10.2 emphasises, release from karmas is obtained through the absence of bandha (bandhahetu abhāva) and nirjarā.
Karma as a Causative Force
The Jaina Argas, sacred texts, treat karma as the motive force of the cycle of existence.
The Uttaradhyayana Sutra 3.3-4 observes as under : egayā devaloesu, naryesu vi egaya egayā asuram kāyam, ahākammehim gacchai
The jiva or soul sometimes is born in devaloka (the world of gods), sometimes in hell. Sometimes it acquires the body of an asura, all this happens due to karmas. Again, egayā........
tao kidapayango ya tata kunthu piviliyā
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(This jiva sometimes takes birth) as a worm, as an insect, as an ant.
Again the Uttarādhyayana, 32.7 states "kammam ca jāimaranassa mulam : Karma is the root of birth and death. In Uttaradhyayana, 33.1 it is said : jehi baddho ayam jivo samsāre parivattae.
The souls bound by karman go round and round in the cycle of existence (see also Uttarādhyayana, 10.15)
The Satrakytānga,? 1.2.3.18 observes : sarve sayakamma kappiyā avivattena duhena pānine hindati bhavāulā saddhā jāi-jarā maranehi abhiddutā
All living beings owe their present form of existence to their own karman ; timid, wicked, suffering latent misery, they err about in the circle of births) subject to birth, old age and death.
Pancāstikāyas 128 sums up the position in the following verse :
? Ghasilal (ed & tr), Sutrakrtanga Sutram, Rajkot, 1969, in Hindi & Gujarati.
Jacobi (tr), Jaina Sutras. : Quoted in J. L. Jaini's Outlines of Jainism, p. 103.