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murder” according to the view of the Buddhists. Again according to the Buddhists 'If a savage puts a man on a spit and roasts him for a gourd, he will not be guilty of murder......”. Ardraka, the Jaina sage comments "well-controlled men cannot accept (your denial of) guilt incurred by (unintentionally) doing harm to living beings".
The absence of evil intent, however, does not absolve a person of guilt ; only its presence is an aggravating factor. Intent is a function of rāga (attachment) and dveşa (hatred) and is quality of mental action (mānasika karma) as distinct from actions of body (kāya) and speech (vāk). Intent increases the yoga or vibrations of body (kāyā) and speech (vāk). Intent increases the yoga or vibrations of the soul and therefore the latter attracts and absorbes more karma. Thus intent is only one factor and not the only factor in performance of karmas.
This is in conformity with the Jaina cosmological concepts. The one sensed (ekendriya), two sensed (dvindriya) and three sensed (trindriya) beings or jivas have only the sense of touch, touch and smell, touch, smell and taste. They are, therefore, bhogis, experiencers only. The four sensed (caturendriya) and five sensed (pañcendriya) beings are both bhogis and kāmis (actuated by desire) as they possess, in addition to the three senses, either the faculty of hearing or and of seeing. 12 Again some of the five sensed jivas or beings are endowed with mind samanaskah and hence are rational sanjñin, that is, possess reasoning faculty ; others do not have the capacity for reasoning (asanjñin).18 The generation and accumulation (upacaya) of karmas takes place through functioning of body, speech and mind (kāya prayoga, vacana prayoga and manaḥ prayoga).14 Thus accumulation (upacaya) of karmas takes place as a result of instinctive and autonomic activities and volitional actions of all beings or jīvas – from ekendriyas (one sensed) upwards ; their ethical" quality and duration, that is the period in which they would manifest their potential, depend on the intent. Thus purely bhoga karmas are of severely limited duration and amoral; the mental karmas may have a long duration and may be classified as good or evil depending upon the intent of the sanjñin.
12 Bhagavati Sutra, 3.7.7. 13 Tattvartha Sutra, 1.24 & 2.11 and Pujyapada's commentary Sar vart hasiddhi
(ed & tr) by Phool Chandra Jain, Bharatiya Jnanapitha, Kasi, 1955. 14 Bhagavati Sutra, 2.6.3: kayavan manah karma yogah, Sar vart hasiddhi, 6.2.1. 15 Jainism considers all karmas as evil, a defiling category. Therefore the distinction
between good and evil is only empirical.
JAINTHOLOGY,91
