Jain Moral Doctrine

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

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OPERATIVE FACTORS IN IMMORALITY
Moksa or escape from the miseries of the empirical life is real, it can be said that the connection with this experiential world is to be progressively cut up. This implies that not only are the acts which introduce the evil Karmas into the self with their unpleasant results to be avoided but also those activities which cause the inflow of even the subha Karmas with their results, all desirable for the time being for some duration, are also be given up. The Jaina philosophers maintain that even the Arhats, so long as he is embodied in a frame, admittedly the most brilliant and auspicious one, has not the final liberation. His Mokşa is complete only when it is 'Videha', i.e., only when the Arhat gives up the body and completely separates his self from it. Even the Tirthankara-karma and the Tirthankara-body stand in the way of the Arhat's complete emancipation, which becomes real only when that Karma and the body, resulting from it, are finally shaken off. Karma, in all its forms, is an obstacle to the attainment of the final bliss and all acts, described in the foregoing pages which cause the Asraya of the Karma, are to be scrupulously avoided by a person who wants to be on the path of rectitude.
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