Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

Author(s): Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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146 Jain Philosophy in Historical Outline
gods, ultimately to become an animal. The insect could, by good deeds in successive births, be reborn to human and then to divine estate, though even that did not free him from the power of his further Karma.
Thus more significant is the doctrine of Karma which ultimately has become the driving force of Jainism. Every beings of this vast universe is guided by its own Karma. The heavenly bodies, and even the gods, are not exceptions. Owing to the inclinations generated by its past Karma, a Jiva comes to inhabit different bodies successively. Trees, plants and animals come into existence owing to the Karma or actions of their previous lives. The same also holds good in the case of human beings. Every event of the life of an individual is due to the Karma of his previous life. Birth and death, pleasure and pain, disease and suffering, everything is dependent on this peculiar concept of Karma. Because of good or evil Karma a living creature would be reborn into any species, particularly suited to and measured by the action, from the vilest insect to a god. This emphasis on the doctrine of Karma was certainly due to the corresponding emphasis on the ethical values. These values were so strongly upheld by the Jains that Papa (vice) and Punya (virtue) became two important categories of the nine fundamental truths of Jainism (navatattva). The conception of Karma is, however, older than Jainism itself. Its origin may even be traced to the growth of agricultural societies. Its basis lay in the maxim; As you sow, so shall you reap "Karma therefore was a religious extension of an elementary concept of abstract value, independent of the individual, caste, or tribe. It could grow and ripen like a seed planted in the previous season, or mature like a debt, while it never failed to pay in exact proportion. It can be seen how this would appeal to peasants and traders, even to the Sudra who might thus aspire to be a reborn king."
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The Nine Fundamentals and the Doctrine of Karma
Before dealing with the Jain doctrine of Karma it is necessary to have a fair idea about the nine fundamentals on which the entire Jain philosophy, evidently in its sophisticated form, rests. These fundamentals are closely connected with the Jain conception of Karma. The doctrine of Karma, as we shall see in the concluding
1Kosambi, ISIH, p. 159. "PTSMS, 116; DS, 22ff.