Karma and Rebirth

Author(s): T G Kalghatgi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 16

In the Vestibules of Karma
11
In Buddhism Karma has an extensive function as it determines not only his individual qualities, the circumstances of his life and fate, but also creates an external world to be experienced by the being in question.39 According to Sarvästivādins, the sun, the mountains and the rivers are only contents of my consciousness determined by Karma. Not only the fate of all earthly communities but those of an entire world system are determined by the Karma of all the apparent individuals who were born in it. 40 The fruits of retribution of acts include not only the sensation but also everything that determines sensation. Three kinds of acts produce agreeable (sukha-vedanīya), disagreeable (duḥkha) and indifferent sensations. Similarly, some acts produce immediate effects because their retribution cannot be interrupted by an act allowing the fruit in another existence as, for instance, matricide, patricide and murder of an arhat etc. In other cases the retribution may be arrested by an acquisition of spiritual stage called kşānti (patience), anāgāmi (quality of a saint) and arhatship. An existence is projected or caused by Karma and human existence cannot be projected except by good Karma. The fruits of Karma may be of general kind as for instance towards the end of a cosmic period (antarakalpa) plants are crushed by rains and stones and they bear little fruits. The creation of Karm is the result of Karma.
The idea of the pollution of the soul due to karma has been largely allegorical in other religious philosophies in India, while the Jainas have adopted it in the real sense of the word' and have worked out into an original system. 41 The Jaina conception of Karma must have been completely developed after a thousand years of Mahavira's nirvana. The Sthananga, Uttarādhyayanasūtra and the Bhagavatīsūtra contain general outline of the doctrine and the details have been worked out in the Karmagrantha, Pancasangraha and the Karmapraksti. In working out the details, there have been two schools of thought i) Agamika and ii) Karmagranthika.
Jainism is, in a sense, dualistic. The universe is constituted of the two fundamental categories : Jiva (living) and ajīva (non-living); soul (jiva) has been described from the noumenal and the phenomenal points of view. From the pure and ultimate point of view, jiva is pure and perfect. It is characterised by upayoga, the hormic energy. It is simple and without parts. It is immaterial and formless. 42 It is characterised by cetana. It is pure consciousness. From the phenomenal point of view jīva is decribed as possessing four prānas. It is the lord (prabhu), limited to his body
39. Yamakami Sogen: Systems of Buddhist Philosophy. (1912), pp. 50-66. 40. Glasenapp. Immortality and Salvation in Indian Religion. p. 29. 41. Glasenapp (Von H.): The Doctrine of Karma in Jaina Philosophy. p. 15. 42. Dravyasangraha. 2.