Jain Moral Doctrine

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

Page 53

CHAPTER IV
OPPOSITION TO IMMORALITY
The soul's bondage to material elements is not a superficial con. tact with them, so that if the goal of life be complete emancipation of the self from the thraldom of those foreign influences, it
ould never be forgotten that it is not an easy task. The Bandha in one of its aspects is described by the Jainas as the 'Prakrtibandha', indicating that in the state of its bondage the nature of the self is permeated by the material elements through and through, 'Pradeśa' by 'Pradeśa', as they call it. The extrication of the self from the foreign forces is necessarily an enormous affair and in the Indian systems of philosophy, its enormity is fully recognised. The Vedic schools assert, on the one hand, that not a moment passes in which Karmas or acts are not done and, on the other, that one is bound to experience the fruits of those acts. The Karmas and the Fruitions thus go on multiplying, making the Mokşa more and more inattainable. To show, however, that the final eradication of the Karmas, though difficult, is not impossible, the Vedic thinkers draw a distinction between Karmas to the effect that (1) at a particular moment, some of the Karma's are actually yielding fruits; (2) some of them are about to do so; (3) some lie in a potential state; and (4) some acts which are being presently done are to bear fruits in future suitably. It is said that the first two modes of the Karma cannot be avoided, their results must be experienced, and a person wanting to attain liberation in the shortest time possible is only to hasten his experience of their fruitions by having recourse to such practices as the creation of the 'Kāya-vyūha' or a number of simultaneous bodies, in and through which he finishes his experience of