Jaina Philosophy and Religion

Author(s): Nyayavijay
Publisher: B L Institute of Indology

Page 55

Essentials of Jaina Philosophy
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spiritual objective, the bound karmic matter gets dissociated from the soul even before it has yielded its fruit. The other way is as follows: The dissociation of the bound karmic matter comes about through experiencing its fruit at the destined time. The former partial dissociation is voluntary (sakāma) and the latter involuntary (akāma). We all know that fruits naturally by themselves become ripe on the tree itself, whereas in a room they are being ripened quickly by employing certain means. Similarly, karmas too become ripe by themselves and get dissociated as soon as their fruits are experienced by the concerned soul, or they are made ripe by the heat of austerity and get burnt (dissociated) by the fire of austerity.
If the soul practises austerities with a view to dissociating the bound karmas, the latter do get dissociated from the former; otherwise, on the maturity of their time duration, the karmas yield their fruits and it is their nature to get dissociated from the soul as soon as their fruits are fully experienced by it. But while experiencing the fruits of karmas, if the soul is perturbed, constantly engages itself in bad thoughts and yields itself to passions, then it binds new karmas. Thus, this cycle will go on for a very long time or even for infinity. On the other hand, if the fruits of the bound karmas are experienced peacefully without yielding oneself to passions, then no new karmas are bound to one's soul. If one lives a life of equanimity and thereby gradually develops spiritual purity, then one binds no karmas and ultimately becomes totally free from them and consequently from miseries and attains liberation.
As already stated, samvara (stoppage or prevention) is the opposite of asrava (inflow). It stops the inflow of karmic matter. It is of the nature of internal purity. This internal purity is achieved by means of gupti, samiti, dharma, anuprekṣā, parīşahajaya and cāritra. Gupti means spiritually beneficial control of the activities of mind, speech and body. Samiti means careful activities inspired by a sense of discrimination. Dharma means meritorious qualities, viz., forbearance, softness of heart (humility, modesty), straightforwardness, contentedness, truthfulness, restraint, austerity, renunciation, non-attachment and continence. Anupreksā means spiritually beneficial deep-reflections. Parīşahajaya' means endurance with equa
1. To endure with equanimity hunger-thirst, honour-dishonour, disease-affliction, not
to be carried away by temptations, not to be conceited by one's intelligence or learning, not to feel despair because of one's dull intellect, etc. are instances of parīşahajaya.