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THE BASIC POSTULATE OF THE THEORY
other beings. It is also used in the sense of "rites and rituals”16 by the Mimāṁsakas, in the sense of duties of the 'four-fold occupations (varņas) and stations (Aśramas)' by the Smộtikāras, in the sense of 'religious vows and disciplines' by the Paurānikas, in the sense of the object or the second case' by the Grammarians, in the sense of movement' and not voluntary action or the law of moral causation, residing only in one substance devoid of qualities and direct and immediate cause of conjunction and disjunction by the Nyāya-Vaiśesikas,17 in the sense of 'function of Rajas' aspect of Prakrti in Sārkhyayoga 18 etc. However, as technical philosophical term, it sig. nisies not only action but also its actual potential effects. In Jainism, this means the activity of the soul which invites and enables matter to flow into it, as also the matter which does flow into the soul. The first is known as thought-activity (Bhāvakarma) and the second as material-activity (Dravyakarma), In other words, karma is that “finest matter which a living being attracts to itself by reason of certain impellant forces which are in the individual; not only attracted to but assimilatted by the individual itself; and it changes the individuality of living being.19 Different systems of Indian philosophy adopt different terms to express the same thing for which 'karma' is used in Jaina literature. We can trace back the origin of the karma principle to the RgVeda in its concept of Order (Rta).20 Buddha's concept of Law (Dhamma)ai practically signifies the same thing. Fate (Daiva) and luck (Bhagya) are the distorted forms found in the general use. The Nyāya
16 Pārthasārthi Mišra, śāstra-Di pika, p. 80; Šabara-bhāşya, II. 1.5.;
Šalikanātha, Prakaraṇa-Pañcika, pp. 184-85. 17 Kanāda, Vaisesika-Sutra, 1. 1.17. 18 Isvara Krşņa, Sankhya-Karikā, 13. 19 V. R. Gāndhi, The Karma Philosophy (Bombay, D.L.P. Fund
1913) p. 3. 20 Rzvedu, 1.1.8; 1.23.5; 1.54.9; 1.123.13. 21 Mahānidāna Sutta.
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