________________
26
Jaina Philosophy and Religion
sand which falls off from a dry stick the moment it comes in contact with the stick. It is only when the activities are defiled with passions that the karmic matter gets strongly bound with the soul and remains stuck to it for long. But the liberated-while-living-in-the-world is so called because though he lives in the world he is completely liberated from passions. And as he is absolutely free from passions, the bondage of karmas that takes place due to activities only, has almost nil duration and no fruit.
As stated above, though mainly there are two causes of bondage, viz. passions and activities, it is with a view to accounting for the greater or lesser number of karma-types bound down in the different guṇasthānas (the gradual stages of spiritual progress) that there have been mentioned the four causes of bondage, viz. mithyātva, avirati, kașāya and yoga. Thus, the greater the number of the causes of bondage from among these four present in a gunasthāna, the greater is the number of karma-types bound in it; on the other hand, when the causes of bondage are fewer in number, then even the number of karma-types bound is also smaller. Adding pramāda to these four, the total number of causes comes to five. Pramāda is but a type of asamyama (non-restraint) and so is included in avirati or in kasāya, and it is from this point of view that we can say that the causes of bondage are four. Viewed minutely both mithyātva and avirati are not essentially different from kasāya; so in the last count kasāya and yoga, these two are the only causes of bondage.
The removal of the causes of bondage is achieved by the cultivation of their opposite qualities. Mithyātva is removed by samyagdarśana, that is, true view regarding soul; avirati by virati, that is, refrainment from vicious acts; pramāda by apramāda, that is, spiritual vigilance or alertness in the performance of acts one should perform; anger, pride, deceit and greed — these four kaşāyas by forbearance, softness of heart (humiļity), straightforwardness and contentedness. Activities (yoga) of mind, speech and body turn auspicious and pure through restraint and culture, and at last at the highest stage of spiritual development these activities get arrested altogether. Thus, to remove the causes of bondage is called samvara. And the partial dissociation of the bound karmas from the soul is called nirjarā.
PARTIAL DISSOCIATION (NIRJARĀ) The partial dissociation of the bound karmic matter takes place in two ways. One way is as follows: By force of austerity undertaken for a high
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
