Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

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

Page 190

A Comparative Study 169 into the soul and sticking to it, gradually ripens and exhausts itself in accordance with the suffering and enjoyment of the individual. While some Karma matter is being expanded in this way, other Karma matters are being accumulated at the same time. If through proper self discipline all Karma is worked out, the Jiva becomes free. The Jain conception of Jiva that suffers pain and enjoys pleasure owing to the amount of Karma it acquires appears also to have been influenced by the Upanişadic ideas. The word is derived from the root Jiv, which means 'to continue breathing'. The Upanişads use two other terms for the soul, viz. bhoktā or experient and Kartā or agent.1 Every soul is conditioned by these two principles throughout its empirical existence.
The doctrine of Karma is inextricably blended with that of transmigration of soul and rebirth. Like the generality of Indian systems, Jainism also believes in soul's transmigration, but its conception of Karma, the governing principle of transmigration, is unlike that of any other, as we have seen above. The Karma matter accumulated round the soul during the infinite number of past lives is technically called Karmaśarira, which encircles the soul as it passes from birth to birth. In the Rgvedic eschatology there is no direct reference to the soul's transmigration or to the doctrine of rebirth in any form. In the Brāhmaṇa literature, however, we come across the idea of repeated births and deaths, but this idea has not been established in a theoretical set up. It is only in the Upanişads that we come across a clear development of the theory of the transmigration of soul in three distinct stages. In the first stage the earlier Vedic idea of heaven or the abode of Yama has been replaced by the conception of Yāna or way, of the fathers (pit) or of the gods (deva). In the second stage the doctrine of transmigration is presented without any reference to the idea of Karma or reaping the fruits of deeds. In the final stage. however, we have a complete presentation of the transmigration of soul strictly in the terms of the doctrine of Karma. According to the merits or demerits, a man earns through his actions, he will have to take birth again and again in this world. Good deeds in one life secure a better future for the next life, and this process works out until one achieves the final salvation. Needless to say that Jainism,
Icf. Praśna, IV. 9; Kasha, I. 3.4.
*For Upanişadic theories of transmigrtaion sce Chandogya, V. 10; Brhadāranyaka, IV. 4; Mundaka, III 2. etc.