Jain Moral Doctrine

Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Jain Sahitya Vikas Mandal

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JAIN MORAL DOCTRINE
pectively called the Āvarana and the Viksepa. Through the operation of the first of these powers of the Māyā, the real nature of the self is covered or enveloped while on account of the activity of the Māyā, which is called the Viksepa, the self appears as different from what it really is. The Jaina conception of the Ghātiyā (the destructive) and the Aghātiyā (the undestructive forms of the Karma is comparable with the two powers attributed to the Māyā by the Vedānta school. While the essential nature of the Karma is to limit the infinitude of the self, its four Ghātiyā forms destroy, i.e. cover up the four essential attributes of the soul and the Aghātiyā present it in various modes of finitude.
The four, Ghātiyā Karma's are respectively the Jñānāvarana, the Darśanāvarana, the Mohanīya and the Antarāya. The first two suppress the two natural capacities of the soul for perfect knowledge and perfect apprehension, the third stupifies the self and the fourth circumscribes the boundlessness of its natural powers. The Vedaniya, yielding pleasure and pains, the Ayu, investing the self with a span or fixed period of life, the Gotra, incarnating the self in a high or low family and the Nāma, clothing the animal with a body, limbs and sub-limbs, are the four modes of the Aghātiyā Karma. The Karmas are thus primarily divided into eight classes which have further sub-divisions within them, totalling the Karmas into 148 sorts ultimately.
The Asrava paves the way for the inflow of the various forms of the Karma into the self and the Jainas describe the particular states and activities of the self which induce the inflow of a particular mode of the Karma in each case. Thus it is said that the Jñānāvarana and the Darśanāvarana, Karmas, i.e., the Karmas' which suppress the perfect knowledge and apprehension, inherent in the soul are introduced by the Pradosa or a tendency to under-appreciate the people who are well-versed in the scriptures, the Nihnava or a tendency to conceal knowledge, the Mätsarya or a tendency to refuse the imparting of knowledge out of envy, the Antarāya or a tendency to hinder the progress of knowledge, the Āsādanā or a tendency to deny the truth proclaimed by another, openly by speech or by bodily gesture or postures or the Upaghāta or a tendency to refute the truth inspite of knowing it to be nothing other than truth. The Mohanīya Karmas are either the Darsana-moha which stupify one's right faith or the Çāritra-moha which delude his right conduct. The former mode of the Mohaniya is introduced by the Avarna-vāda which consists in denouncing the Arhat or the omniscient Being, the Śrūta or the true scripture, the Sangha or the
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