Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

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

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168 Jain Philosophy in Historical Outline
doctrine of absolute momentariness. Jainism also believed that changes were produced by the assemblage of conditions, but instead of carrying this idea to that of absolute momentariness, it accepted the doctrine of permanence in a relative sense. The Jain philosophers held that no ultimate, one sided and absolute view of things could be taken. Thus, according to Jainism, not only the happening of the events is conditional, but even all our judgements are true only in a limited sense. By the assemblage of conditions, old qualities in things disappear, new qualities come in, and a part remains permanent.
The ideas of the Vedic tradition by which certain fundamentals of Jainism and Buddhism are said to be inspired were chiefly concerned with the doctrine of Karma, transmigration of soul and rebirth, and liberation. In the early Vedic ideas Karma denotes sacrifice, but in the later Vedic texts, especially in the Upanişads, it reveals the agricultural maxim, we reap what we sow. Long ago, Jacobi had pointed out that the Karma doctrine in its agricultural sense was evolved among the non-Vedic peoples and it was able to find a place in the Upanişads. There is evidently some truth in this hypothesis. In the Upanişads the doctrine of Karma is presented in two formssimple and sophisticated. The simple form of this doctrine is that just as the good seeds bring a good harvest and bad seeds bad, so also a man becomes good by good deeds and bad by bad deeds. Its ethics is that every deed must produce its natural effect in the world, and as such also leaves an impression on the mind. It is this impression or samskāra that inclines one to repeat the deed one has once done. A man can not escape the deeds but can control them, and by self-discipline can strengthen the good impulses and weaken the bad ones. In the sophisticated level, however, Karma is regarded as a blind unconscious principle, governing the whole universe. It is not a subject to the control even of God.1
It appears that the Jain doctrine of Karma had derived its main impulses from the sophisticated form mentioned above. Karma is conceived in Jainism, unlike other systems, as being material and permeating the Jīvas through and weighing them down to the mundane level. Through the actions of body, speech and mind, Karma is formed as a subtle matter. The passions of a man act like a viscous substance that attracts the Karma matter, which thus pouring
1For the Upanişadic references to Karma see Tsa, II; Chandogya, III. 1.10; III. 14.1; VII. 1.6, etc.; Maitrāyani, III. 2. etc.; Brhadaranyaka, III. 2. 13; IV. 4.5, etc.