Jain Journal 1993 04

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

Page 57

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JAIN JOURNAL
the cause of bondage and the shedding of all the karmas, Āsraya is the influx of the karma-particles into the Soul, Jiva takes matter in accor. dance with its own karma because of self-possession. Since the karmic inflow is the principle of bondage and hence its stoppage must be a condition of mokşa. So samvara is opposite to äsrava. Samvara literally means controlling ; it only arrests fresh-flow of karma-particles, but what is required is not only stoppage of the fresh flow but also dissipation of the old one. This shedding or dissipation called nirjara is possible by austerities.? Umäsvåmi has two prefixes-vi (višeşarūpena), pra (prakrstarūpeņa)& in defining mokşa, meaning thereby that moksa is the total and exhaustive dissolution of all karmic particles, which is the condition of omniscience.
The jiva attains moksa when it is free from the shares of karma (karma-phalavinir muktaḥ moksa). The moksa is either bhäva (objective) or dravya (subjective). When the soul is free from four ghati karmas, viz., jñānāvaraniya, darśanavaraniya, mohaniya, antaraya, it is bhāvamoksa, and when it is free from aghati karmas, viz., ndma, ayu, gotra, vedantya it is dravya mokşa. The former is negative since in this state the Soul is in the process of nirjarā which is not complete. But after freedom from aghāti karmas (action.currents of non-injury) the Soul attains a state of never-ending blissful beautitude. A person attains a state of omniscience when mohaniya (deluding) jñänävaranlya (knowledge-obscuring), dar sanāvaraniya (faith-obscuring), antaraya (obstructive) karmas are destroyed. After the attainment of kevalajñāna, a person is free from all kinds of karmas and attains final liberation 10 The Soul comes into its own and regains infinite knowledge, infinite faith, bliss and infinite power. When the jiva attains freedom, it rises higher and reaches the summit of lokākāśa which is called Siddhasila or moksa-sthāna (region of the free and liberated). Thus "moksa in Jainism is not the product of something new. It is a rediscovery of man himself through self realisation".11
3 Tattvärtha-sutra, X. 2. 4 Ibid., VI, 1-2. 5 Ibid., VII. 3. 6 Ibid., IX. 1. 7 Ibid., IX. 3. 8 Ibid., X. 1. 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid. 11 Singh, Ram Jee, Jaina Moksa in the Perspective of Indian Philosophy", Jain
Journal, Jain Bhawan Publication, Vol. XXIV No. 3, 1990, p. 81.