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Jaina Philosophy and Religion
duration, intensity and quantity.
It is these characteristics that constitute the types of bondage. Thus, the types of bondage are four, viz. bondage in respect of nature (prakṛtibandha), bondage in respect of duration (sthitibandha), bondage in respect of intensity (anubhavabandha or rasabandha), and bondage in respect of quantity (pradesabandha). The nature of the karmic atoms-the nature to cover knowledge, the nature to cover vision, the nature to cause the experience of pleasure or pain, etc. is generated in them in accordance with the nature of the activity undertaken by the soul. For instance, an act of destroying books, despising the learned, etc., generates the knowledge-covering nature in the karmic atoms bound on account of this act. Thus, the nature of the activity determines the nature of the karmic atoms inflowed into and bound with the soul as a result of this activity. The natures of the karmic atoms are invisible, but they can be known and enumerated simply on the basis of the observable effects produced by them. In one worldly soul or in many of them, innumerable effects are observed to have been produced by the karmas. The natures that produce these effects are really innumerable, yet on the basis of the summary classification they have been divided into eight types. Therefore, eight types of karmas are enumerated; as for instance, that karmic matter which has the nature to cover knowledge is called knowledge-covering karma, the karmic matter which causes the experiences of pleasure and pain is called feeling-producing karma.
As already stated, along with the generation of nature-characteristic in the karmic atoms, the duration-characteristic is also generated in those very karmic atoms as soon as they are bound with the soul. That is, a limitation as to time-period up to which the karmic atoms in question obstruct the concerned quality of the soul is produced in those atoms as soon as they are bound.
Again, along with a nature-characteristic there is produced in the karmic atoms the effect-intensity characteristic. In other words, as soon as the karmic atoms are bound, there is generated in them certain speciality on account of which their effect experienced by the concerned soul will have specific intensity strong, moderate or mild.
All the karmic atoms that are being received by the soul get transformed into diverse natures and hence naturally undergo a corresponding quantitative distribution under each nature. This is what we mean by quantity-characteristic.
As already stated, the nature-characteristic is governed by the nature
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