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JAINISM: A THEISTIC PHILOSOPHY "GOD IN JAINISM”
wise and steady. The objects of sense do not forcibly yoke him to the enjoyment of sense-pleasures against his will. The only means for keeping one's mind calm and composed even in the midst of sense objects presented to one by fruition of one's karmas is the extermination of the longing for sense-pleasure by means of the fire of knowledge.60
But if he loses patience, courage and self-confidence, he will surely slip into the deep valley of degeneration. It is, therefore more proper and meaningful to blame one's own spiritual weakness than to put blame on one's karma.
Behind any event-taking place in the life of a mundane soul, there is certainly the force of its past karmas. Thus, when a physical (natural) or financial calamity befalls on a person, that force is indubitably working behind it. In spite of this fact, if a person intentionally invites the calamity, he cannot escape from the crime of inviting it. The worldly laws may or may not punish him for this crime, but the law of nature (karma) will certainly punish him.
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Who so, occupying himself with activities which stop the inflow of karmas persists in ascetic practices of various kinds-verify such an one makes many karmas fall away from his soul. Pañcāstikāya, 144
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