________________
JAINA VIEW OF KARMA COMPARED WITH......
view, upheld by great Jinas, Tirthankara, the ātman simply sees and knows. Atman does not bring about bondage and liberation, which are caused by karman for it. Ātman is Omniscience; and every other predication about him is true from the practical point of view. Really speaking atman himself constitutes right faith, knowledge and conduct, which are generally stated as means of liberation.
When the atman27 realizes itself by itself it becomes Samyagdrsti, i.e. possessed of Right faith or spiritualistic attitude, and get rid of karmas; but if it pursue the modification its views are perverted, and it incurs the bondage of many karmas and wanders long in samsara. When the atman develops perverted attitude, it grasps the realty in a perverted manners, and the conditions created by Karman, it begins to identify with itself. The Jīva begins to say; I am this and that, I am fair, white, black; I am slender, fat, ugly; I am Brahmin, a Vaiśya, a Kṣatriya or the rest; I am a man, a neuter, a woman; etc., this is all a magical network of unreality, and a fool claims all this as his. A being of perverted attitudes does nothing else than enjoying the objects of pleasure which are the cause of misery.
VII.2. (iii) Jaina View of Karma Compared with the Buddhist Philosophy
247
The Buddhist and Jaina philosophers belong to Śramanic current of thoughts, which gives emphasis on karma. Both philosophers regard that the variety and inequality among living beings is due to karma. Due to the infatuation and effect of emotion, the Jīva (soul) acts through the body, speech and mind; and produces likes, attachments and hatred, which in turn produces karma.28
27
The doctrine of four noble truths is the central point of Buddhist teaching. The substance of that teaching is that life is
Paramātma-prakāśa, P-12
28 Devendra Muni Shastri, "A Source Book In Jaina Philosophy", 1983,
P-424, Milindapraśna, 3.2
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
