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The Theory of Karma.
[September
pearance of one homogenious substance but they can be differentiated by placing the pot containing them on fire which eveporates the water and retains only the milk, the process showing that both are different in substance as well as in essence though they looked as one in essence in a combined form. Likewise, the Spirit and Karma look ostensibly as one substance, but really they are different in essence, both having attributes of their own having nothing in common with one another. Pure spirit plus the karma is termed soul.
Karma by its very nature is inert. It is Pudgal as the term goes among the Jains. This Pudgal pervades the whole space (Akash) in a variety of forms and combinations and is drawn or repelled by the soul by the sympathy or antipathy of its will. The Fudgal drawn by the soul goes to swell the volume of the previously accumulated Karmas, of which three are 8 principal kinds classified according to the ways in which they obscure the innate nature of the soul. The soul is free when it shakes off this brood of Karmas which binds it to earth and goads it relentlessly on, in its unceasing migrating course. These Pudgal or karma are composed of the primeaval atoms which is the pure ultimate state of Pudgal indivisible and invisible to the human eye. When two such atoms combine, the formation is termed binary groupdwanuka skanhha. The aggregation of three atoms is called tertiary group (tryanuka skandha), the aggregation of innumerable atoms is known as (asankhyâta-skandha) and so on ad infinitum.
The principal groups of karmas are called Mula Prakritis which, as mentioned above, are 8 in number. These are further subdivided into 158 Uttara Prakritis They are constantly at work to suppress or uplift the soul according as they are good cr evil. The principal groups may be thus defined.
I. Jnanavarniya Karma:- The accumulation of Karmic groups (Karma Vargana) which shrouds the intellectual nature of the seul and obstructs the knowledge of all sorts. The intellectual
