________________
KARMA
203
cannot be bound separately, because they are purified conditions of mithyātva. Therefore, they must be subtracted from the 122 sub-species of udaya and udiraņā, so that the total number in bandha is 120. Duration:
After having considered the nature of karmas we, now, proceed to their duration. First, let us understand the scheme of the division of time as conceived by the Jainas. The lowest unit of time is a samaya. Innumerable samayas form an avalikā. 16,777,216 avalikās make a muhūrta (48 minutes of modern time.) Thirty muhurtas make an ahorātra ( a day and night). Out of ahorätras are formed fortnights, months, years etc. Years can be expressed in words up to a number containing 77 cyphers. Beyond that, it is asankhyeya (innumerable). An innumerable quantity of years makes a palyopama, 10 koțākoți (1,000,000,000,000,000) palyopamas make a sägaropama, 10 koțākoți sāgaropamas form an utsarpiņi (ascending peiod), the same number of sägaropamas forms an avasarpiņi (descending period).'
The following table will give the highest as well as the lowest duration of each chief species of karma :2
Maximum
Minimum 1. Knowledge30 kotākoți
Within one obscuring sägaropamas
muhurta 2. Intuitionobscuring 3. Feeling-producing
12 muhurtas 4. Deluding 70 " .
Within one
muhurta 5. Age-determining 33 sāgaropamas 6. Physique-making 20 koțākoți
8 muhurtas
sägaropamas 7. Heredity-determining " " 8. Power-hindering 30 " "
Within one
muhurta 1. Doctrine of Karman in Jain Philosophy, p.20. 2. Tattvärtha-sútra, VIII.15-21.
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