Jinamanjari 1998 09 No 18

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

Page 33

<Mahāvīra's answer> [Without kārmaṇasarīra), someone who left his gross [body] altogether will never get a new gross] body; as a result, samsāra is cut off [without any effort).
In other words, jiva, being released from the gross body through death, would gain emancipation without the possibility of rebirth, if no kārmanaśarīra existed, which would lead that there would be no samsāra as such. In affirmative term, it is possible for jiva to transmigrate only when kārmaņaśarīra exists, and hence the karmic body is thought to be the cause or means of the rebirth of jiva.
From such arguments, it can be concluded that kārmaņaśarīra is nothing but karman and that it is the subtle body, i.e., the means of transmigration. This karmic body has been connected with jiva from beginningless time. For the jiva which exists together with the gross body in this world, 'the connection between kārmanasarira and jiva' means nothing more than 'the connection between karman and jiva'. On the other hand, for the jiva which transmigrates from one life to the next, the expression 'karmic body' (kūrmaņaśarīra) is highly significant.
VĀBhSV ad 2089, Karmasiddhi:
atha (apy a-) śarīratve sati sarvamokșaprasangaḥ /aśarīrasyāpi ca samsaraņapratipatiāv akāraṇaḥ samsāraḥ svät, muktānām api cākasmāt patanaprasangaḥ /tatas cānāśvāsadoṣaḥ /
If there were no body, it would mean that everyone gains emancipation. If [a jiva) is understood to transmigrate even without a body, samsāra would be without a cause, and those who are already emancipated would fall [back into the world of samsāra] for no reason, and therefore, the fault (would arise that one cannot have confidence (even when emancipated).
From this, it can be understood that there is need for the constant connection between jiva and the bodies in order to keep jiva within transmigration, that is to say, a certain body is always required to exist in order to maintain samsāra. Thus, jiva must have some kind of body even when the gross body is destroyed at death. It is precisely this body which is kārmaņaśarīra.
However, as for the statement from TAAS that jiva moves into another body after death, the following question arises: How does the jivu which left a gross body at death moves into another gross body without the means, the gross body, for its movement? As jiva is
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