Jainism the Creed for All Times

Author(s): D S Baya
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 73

Jainism believes in plurality of souls and maintains that the universe is inhabited by infinite number of souls, each a conscious unit similar to the other in the sense that in its purest form it is incorporeal, without a wish or a will of its own and is endowed with the infinite quartet of knowledge, vision, bliss and spiritual prowess. The other attributes of the soul are that in their mundane existence they are corporeal and capable of associating themselves with inanimate matter. They assume the shapes and sizes of the bodies in which they are embodied. They have an initial association with karmic matter and depending upon the quality of the actions of their minds or bodies or speech they either attract and bond with particular types of matter called karma pudgala (tangible matter) or shed the earlier bonded karma-matter.
The term 'karma' is, generally, taken in two senses. Karma means action as well as the karma-matter that is attracted and bonded with the soul due to the actions of the corporeal mundane soul. In the first sense karma is action and its reaction is the inevitable retribution or fruition that the embodied soul has to experience at some point of time. In the second sense the karma (karma-matter) associated with the soul soils and tarnishes its purity and keeps it bound to the mundane existence. Karma is of two types - meritorious or pious (punya) whose fruition is pleasurable and the sinful (pāpa) whose fruition is invariably painful. The only way to rid the soul from the initial as well as the freshly bonded karma is to practise penance. When the soul achieves complete and irresidual separation from karma-matter, it breaks away from the mundane existence and rises to the uppermost part of the universe where the abode of such liberated souls (Siddhaloka or Siddhasilā or Isatprāgbhāra prthvī) is. We shall examine this issue in greater detail when we come to the chapter on the 'Jaina Doctrine of karma’.
JAINISM: AN INTRODUCTION: 45