Jain Journal 2000 07

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

Page 14

JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXV, No. 1 July 2000 transformations of the soul and by the meeting of the two, the bondage occurs. How can the immaterial soul be bound. by material karma ? Acarya Kundakunda answers that it is by the bhava with which the sould sees and knows objects that is stained. It is this state which is instrumental in bondage. The mechanism and the principle of bondage, according to him, is the short summary of the soul attached by karma and freed by it fall.
Bhava
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Acārya Kundakunda stresses on individualism and one's emotional intelligence expressed in appropriate and effective combination of determination and experiences. We may call this as "optimal outlook." As Kundakunda clearly notes the freedom of the individual and associated abilities that characterize performance and the performer, he considers the "optimal outlook" of the performer to be the master of mixing competencies wherein it demands critical self-awareness in recognizing the deeds and their effects. The "optimal outlook" however has to be governed by self-regulation in the form of self-control to avoid possible disruptive impulses and also to cultivate situations with constant awareness toward intermediary power relationships that develop in the karmic atmosphere.
Late Folkert W. Kendall views bhava as the state of the soul contrasted with the notion of dravya or substance, and thus it makes it possible for substance, in the form of karma, to affect the soul. Furthermore referring to A.N. Upadhye, Kendall notes that the bhāva in the Bhāvapahuḍa text is considered as a positive force being of internal purity, and dravya external practice is negative.38
According to Khalghatgi, the Jaina thinkers allude to two phases of mind-dravya manas and bhava manasa whose aspects are referred as structural and psychical respectively.39 The psychical nature of the category is designated technically as bhāva. As Acārya Kundakunda points out the psychic state of the soul and its functioning is embedded in the context of entertaining in the existential aspect, there occurs external material operative condition and the internal psychic condition. Bhava therefore becomes physico-psychical states of attachment and aversion. Hence the Jaina position is that the soul is the agent of various bhāvas whereby the influx of karma leads to
38. Dr. W. Kendall, Scripture and Community, ed. Dr. John Cort. Scholars Press, Atlanta 1993, p. 318.
39. Kalghatgi, p. 70.