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Jaina Perspective in Philosophy and Religion
after the total destruction of the respective Karmic obstru. ctions. This Karma is the basis of Jaina Psychology. Karma phenomenology is the root concept of Indian speculation which has reached its acme in Jaina ideology. Just as there is the Law of Causation in Science, Doctrine of Psychic Determinism in Freudian Psychology, so there is Doctrine of Karma in the field of moral life. It means, as a man sows, so he reaps. Every act must have its consequence and if the consequences have not been fully worked out in our life time, they demand a rebirth which in turn implies the idea of metempsychosis and the immortality of soul. To them, it is impossible to explain the diversity of universe especially the inequalities among men in worldly position and privileges without the hypothesis of Karma.
The Jaina accounts of soul and Karma are interlinked together. They believe in the Doctrine of Soul as the possesser of Material Karmal. The soul is innately pure and inherently perfect but that is infected by something foreign called Karma, which has been defined as an aggregate of particles of very fine matter imperceptible to our senses. Just as shining sun is often obscured by either a patch of cloud or mist or a veil of dust, so the pure and perfect soul is clouded by the mist of some or other types of Karma. The Doctrine of soul as the Possessor of Karma involves three questions : Firstly, how can we say that (imperceptible multitude of atoms ) exist ? Secondly, how Karma has a physical form ? Thirdly, if Karma is material, how is it connected with the immaterial self ? Let us take one by one.
Karma phenomenology is the keystone supporting edifice of Jainism. Just as a sprout, which is an effect has a seed which is the cause, so our happiness and misery which are effects, must have cause — which is nothing but Karma. The objection that happiness is derived either from a garland, 1. Mehta, M. L. : An Outline of Jaina Philosophy, Jaina
Mission Society, Banglore, 1954.
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