Book Title: Jaina Mysticism and Other Essays
Author(s): Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 30
________________ The answer of the Jaina is that it is the beginningless material subtle principle known as karina that is responsible for the cause of differences in the empirical selves. This karma has been exercising its limiting and crippling infiuence on the empirical conscious principles from the beginningless past, thereby it has been obstructing the manifestation of their inherent excellences. But it, may be noted that however encumbered with karmic matter a self may be, it cannot obstruct the manifestation of consciousness to the full, just as even the most dense cloud cannot interrupt the light of the sun to its farthest extreme. This material subtle principle known as dravya-karma, and its psychical counterpart in terms of rāga and dveșa is called bhāvakarma. Karmas are of varied nature, but the fundamental kinds of karma are eight in number46 — i. jñānāvaraṇīya-karma: that which obscures knowledge, ii. darśanāvaraṇīya-karma: that which obscures undifferentiated cognition, iii. vedaniya karma : that which produces the feeling of pleasure and pain, iv. mohanīyakarma : that which obstructs right belief and right conduct, v. āyu-karma: that which determines the period of stay of self in a particular body, vi. nāma-karma: that which is responsible for the built of a particular kind of body, vii. gotra-karma: that which determines status in society; and viii. antarāya-karma: that which obstructs will power and enjoyable gains. It is no doubt true that karmas bind the self to mundane existence. Now the question that arises is this : How the self is bound by karma? What are the causes that create karmic bondage in the self? The answer of the Jaina is that it is actions (mental, bodily and vocal) polluted by passions that cause empirical bondage to the self. The passion-free actions do not bring about any mundane bondage whatsoever. Actions with passion are known as jñeyāeynamana-kriyās, since they are consequent upon transmuting the inherent meanings of the objects of the world; and actions without passions are jñāpati-kriyās, since they arise in consequence of having supersensuous knowledge which knows things without any distortion and predilections.48 Bondage of Jaina Mysticism and other essays Jain Education International For Personal & Private Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166