Karma Philosophy

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi, Bhagu F Karbhari
Publisher: Devchand Lalbhai Pustakoddhar Fund

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development has not begun, and the other kind with definite mithyâtva whose development has begun and who are therefore in the first stage of development, or mithyatva gunasthâna.
The answer to the very natural question which arises here, "What starts the development?" would be something like this: in a whirlpool some bit of stick or paper or other matter may in the surging of the water get to one side and become separated from the rest, be caught by the wind, and dried by the sun; and so some such thing may happen to a nigoda which would awaken just a spark of the latent potential power of development.
It is also the theory of the Jinas that as a soul passess from the embodied to the liberated state, a nigoda comes out and begins development. But this does not mean that a nigoda comes out only on such occasions.
There are, according to the Jain philosophy, three kinds of living beings, namely (1) those whose nature it is to remain in the embodied state. They may be men, animals, or other living beings: they are content to remain embodied and never wish for nor reach the liberated state. (2) There are living beings whose nature it is to reach liberation. (3) and there are living beings whose nature it is to reach liberation, but they do not do so, because they do not get the right or necessary circumstances It is understood that these and the first kind are