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JAINA VIEW OF KARMA COMPARED WITH ......
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One very commonly felt difficulty in connections with karma is this. Men ask 'If I am destined by my karma to be bad or good, to do this or not to do it, it must be so; why then I make any effort? The fallacy of this line of thought should be very clearly understood.
The effort is part of the karma, as much as the goodness or badness; karma is not a finished thing awaiting us, but a constant becoming, in which the future is not only shaped by the past but is being modified by the present.
“By his karma may ajīva become an Indra, By his karma a son of Brahmā, By his karma he may become Hari's servant and free from birth, By his karma he may surely obtain perform, immortality, By his karma he may obtain fourfold (mukti), sālokya, sārupya, sāyujya and the rest, connected with Vişņu."
Godhood and manhood and sovereignty of the world empire may a man obtain by karma, and also the state of Śiva and of Gaņeśa.
There remains the question: how can a man become free from karma?
From the general karma of the universe he cannot be freed so long as he remains in the universe; devas, men, animal, plants, mineral, all under the sway of karma; no manifested life can escape from this everlasting Law, without which the universe would be chaos.
"All, Brahma and the rest, are under its sovereign rule, O’king!” Says Devībhāgavata."
Devibhāgavata, IX.27.18-20 10lbid, IV.2.8
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