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KARMA THE MATERIAL BASIS..
obscuring (deśaghatin) karman leading to complete or partial obscuration of the capacity for knowledge. As the cloud can be lifted, so the veil of karma can also be lifted. But, one might say, there is a flaw in this argument. The obscuration of the sun by the cloud is an event in time, while the obs curation of the self by karmas is not temporal event because it has been earlier said to be beginningless. To explain this, the Jainas refer to the chemical action of an alkaline in completely removing the dross of gold from it, though the dross is coeval with gold. Similarly, the spiritual chemistry of concentration and right conduct can remove the karma from the self which has been associated with it from the very beginning of existence.2
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If karma is regarded as prior to self, then self would be its product but karma being material, this is not possible. We cannot also regard karma as posterior to self, for in that case the pure and perfect self will be made responsible for it. However, if we maintain that both the self and karma came together, there is no bondage or suffering which is otherwise regarded as consequence of karma. Nor can we bring God to solve this problem, for it will create many new difficulties wellknown to the theistic conception. Hence the Jainas find it more reasonable to postulate a relation of beginningless conjunction between the soul and the karma. This vlew is not based on logical considerations alone, but also on religious and moral considerations. How the conscious Jivas can be infected by the unconscious matter can also be explained with the help of some common, homely, examples. A liquor or drug obscures the power of consciousness, so that the affected person goes out of his senses.63 Hence it is nothing very startling if the conscious soul is said to be infected by material karmas. Further, the worldly-souls are not absolutely non-material. It is in the
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62 cp. Nemicandra, Gommaṭasara (Karma-kaṇḍa), 2. "The eternal relation of soul and karmic-matter is their nature.
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63 Hemacandra, Pramāṇamīmāmsa, I. 1.52.
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