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Jain Theism in the theory of Karma not necessatly in the form the ancients gave to it, but in the idea at its centre which at once strikes the mind and commands the assent of the understanding.... There is a solidity at once of philosophic and practical truth supporting the idea, a bed-rock of the deepest universal undeniable verities against which the human mind must always come up in its fathomings of the fathomless, in this way indeed does the world deal with us, there is a law here which does so make itself felt and against which all our egoistic ignorance and selfwill and violence dashes up in the end... There is the secret of an eternal factor, the base of the unchanging action of the just and truthful gods, Devānām dhruvavratam, in the self-sufficient and impartial law of Karma."??
"The doctrine of Karma is the central dogma of the Indian religions. It means : every action, every word, every thought produces, besides its visible, an invisible, transcendental effect-the Karman : every action produces, if one may so express it, certain potential energies which under given conditions are changing themselves into actual energies, forces which, either as reward or punishment, enter sooner or later into appearance."933
The doctrine of Karma has been, in Buddhism, explained thus: “As in the case of a bond which, although the amount borrowed may long ago have been spent, continues to exist and only loses its validity on the repayment of the capital sum, so also the invisible effect of an action remains in existence long after the visible one has disappeared.'*54 The present life is, in its duration and condition, the result of the past actions, and actions performed during the presint existence are the causes of future existence. Everybody's existence and life is determined as per the previous Karma. “Thus the natural difference between individuals finds an explanation which is so plausible that inversely it is adduced as a proof of the truth of the Karman theory.''55
The doctrine of Karma has been intimately connected with the doctrine of the reincarnation of soul. "Karma and rebirth are the two concepts which cannot be considered by themselves in isolation. The
52. Aurobindo, the Problem of Rebirth, (1952) p. 84 53. Dr. Giasenepp, The Doctrine of Karma in Jain Philosophy (1942) p. XI 54. Nagatjuna, Madhyamaka Śåstra, XVII 13 55. Sankara Ad, Brahmasutra II 1, 34, Sāṁkhyasutra V. 20 Vi. 4. Karmagrantha
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