________________
Mokṣa Tattva (Liberation) —
Liberation or Moksa is the last and the most important of the nine fundamentals of Jainism. It is the final and ultimate destination of every living being to attain. It is quite natural for the soul to seek liberation, as it is its natural state, the state of bondage being the unnatural one. It has been defined as 'complete separation of the soul from the karma-matter'. The karma, as has been mentioned earlier, is of eight types four of them being destructive and the other four being non-destructive. The destructive types destroy the souls' power to gain enlightenment while the non-destructive types do not prevent enlightenment and have only to be gone through their due fruition before one can finally exit the mundane existence and reach the final destination. The separation from four destructive types of karma results in enlightenment and an assurance of the fact that once the four non-destructive types are exhausted the soul will exit the mundane world and enter the realm of the incorporeal liberated souls. This is, therefore, called the psychic or objective liberation of the soul while the exit of the soul from the mundane existence after exhausting the four non-destructive types of karma as well is termed as substantive or physical liberation.
9.
Here, I wish to make it quite clear that complete separation from the karma-matter means separation from the good as well as the bad types of karma-matter. This means that one cannot liberate unless one rises above sinning as well as piety. Piety, too, results in influx and bonding of karma-matter, though of the good variety that yields pleasurable fruition, but they also are binding on the soul and unless and until it sheds even the good type of karma-matter, and reaches a state of total freedom from karma, it cannot liberate.
Once the soul is liberated from the shackles of bonded karma-matter both the good and the bad types it becomes
-
118: JAINISM: THE CREED FOR ALL TIMES
