Karma and Rebirth

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

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T. G. Kalghatgi
(dehamātra), still incorporeal, and it is ordinarily found with Karma.43 The jiva comes in contact with the external world, ajīva, The jiva is active, and the activity is expressed in the threefold forms-the bodily, in speech and mental. This is called yoga, Yoga brings its after-effects in the form of Karmic particles, which veil the pure nature of the soul. The souls are contaminated by the Karma which is a foreign element, and are involved in the wheel of samsāra. This contamination is beginningless, though it has an end. It is difficult to say how the souls got involved in the wheel of samsāra, Caught in the wheel of Samsāra the soul forgets its real nature and the efforts to search for the truth are obscured by the passions. The inherent capacity of the soul for self-realisation is also obstructed by the veil of Karma.41 It is subjected to the forces of Karma which express themselves first through feelings and emotions, and secondly, in the chains of very subtle kinds of matter invisible to the eye and the instruments of science. It is then embodied and is affected by the environment, physical and social and spiritual. We, thus, get various types of soul existence.
Karma, according to the Jainas, is material in nature. It is matter in a subtle form and it is a substantive force. It is constituted of finer particles of matter. The kind of matter fit to manifest Karma fills the universe. It has the special property of developing the effects of merit and demerit. By its activity due to the contact with the physical world, the soul becomes penetrated with the particles of Karmic body (Karma śarīra) which is constantly attached to the soul till it succeeds to be free from it. 'Nowhere has the physical nature of Karma been asserted with such stress as in Jainism.'45 A moral fact produces a psycho-physical quality, a real and not merely a symbolic mark, affecting the soul in its physical nature. This point of view has been worked out in detail in the form of mathematical calculations, in the Karmagrantha,
The Jaina tradition distinguishes two aspects: i) the physical aspect dravya-karma and ii) the psychic aspect (bhāva-karma). The physical aspect comprises the particles of Karma (Karma-pudgala) accruing into the soul and polluting it. The psychic aspect is primarily the mental states and events arising out of the activity of mind, body and speech. They are like the mental traces long after the conscious states experienced vanish. The physical and the psychic Karma are mutually related to each other as cause and effect,46 The distinction between the physical and the psychic
43. Tattvārtha-Sutra, 6.1. 44. Ibid. 45. Glasenapp (Von. H.): The Doctrine of Karma in Jaina Philosophy. Foreword
by Zimmerman. 46. Asiasahasri (N. S. Press, Bomhay, 1915). p. 51