Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

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

Page 175

154 Jain Philosophy in Historical Outline
According to the Tattvarthädhigama,' Siddha souls are of five kinds: (1) The Tirthamkaras or the liberated who preached Jainism in the embodied condition; (2) The Arhats or the perfect souls who await the attainment of mokṣa after shedding the Karmaṇaśarīra; the Acaryas, or heads of ascetic groups; (4) the Upadhyayas, or teaching saints; and (5) Sadhus, a class which includes the rest."
Classification of Karma and the Gunasthanas
We have thus seen that the doctrine of Karma was the basic driving force behind the nine or seven fundamentals of Jain teachings. We have already the occasion to deal with the different aspects of the Jain doctrine of Karma. In the present section we like to give a brief summary of what we have been able to derive from the preceding discussions regarding the nature and function of the very important concept of Karma which has characterised the Jain system as a whole.
Karma has four sources, as we have seen above. It springs from (1) Avirati or attachment to worldly pleasures, (2) Kaṣāya or passions in the forms of anger, pride, deceit and greed, (3) Yoga or the employment of body, mind and speech to material and sensual things and (4) Mithyātva or false belief. There are eight kinds Karma which the Jains classify broadly under two groups-Ghatin and Aghatin. Each of the groups are further subdivided into four categories. To the former belong Jñānāvaraniya, Darśanavaraniya, Mohaniya and Anatrāya while to the latter Vedaniya, Ayu, Nama and Gotra. Besides there are three tenses-Satta, Bandha and Udaya-and two types-Nikācita and Sithila-of Karma.
Jñānāvaraniya hides all aspects of knowledge from us. It is concerned with the five well known sources of Jain knowledge—Mati, Śruti, Avadhi Manaḥparyāya and Kevala. That which hinders Mati prevents our making the right use of conscience and intellect. It is subdivided into utpatiki which hinders the power of spontaneous thought, vainayaki which prevents our getting what is known as inherited knowledge, pāriṇāmiki which obstructs our having knowledge from experience, and Kamiki which impedes our obtaining any intellectual stimulus. That which hinders Śruti prevents us from getting any knowledge from scripture. Likewise those hindering Manaḥparyaya, Avadhi and Kevala never allow us to know what is passing in the minds of others, what
1X, 8.
*cf. DS, 50-54.