Jain Journal 2012 07

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

Page 49

JAIN JOURNAL: VOL-XLVII, NO. 1-IV JULY.-JUNE 12-13
THEORY OF KARMA :
Mahāvīra propagated the doctrine of Karma. He said that every event in the life of a man occurs due to the Karmas accumulated by him in the previous birth. Karma leads the soul to worldly bondage. As long as a man is associated with Karma, he cannot get liberation. The most important achievement of Lord Mahāvīra in the spiritual field was the establishment of Karma in place of the creator God. He stressed the importance of self efforts and purity of conduct in place of devotion to God.
He said: “सुचिण्णा कम्मा सुचिण्णफला भवन्ति । दुचिण्णा कम्मा दुचिण्णफला भवन्ति ।।"
i.e. auspicious Karmas bring beneficial rusults and evil Karmas bring harmful results.
THE FOUR PASSIONS :
Lord Mahāvīra said: The four passions -- anger, pride, deceit and greed, result in individual and collective violence in thought, word and deed. They are the deadliest enemies of man and cause tensions and strifes in society. Anger spoils good relations, pride destroys humility, deceit destroys amity and greed destroys everything. We should conquer anger by forgiveness, pride by humility, deceit by straight-forwardness and greed by contentment.
Mahāvīra said that four things are very difficult to obtain for any living being -- human birth, listening to the holy scriptures, to have faith in them and the endeavour to practice self-restraint.
CONQUEST OF SELF:
Mahāvīra emphasized the uniqueness of the knowledge relating to the ātman. In Ācāranga Sūtra, this spiritual knowledge has been explained by which a man can swim across the ocean of birth and death and which enables him to gain immortality. He said, “Victory