Karma and Rebirth

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

Page 30

25 KarmaIts Operation and an Appraisal
T3 2000 But it is not possible to attract the karmic particle much earlier to the time of their udaya and hasten fructification.
(6) We now come to subsidence of karmic matter (upašama). It is the process by which the rise, premature fruition and other processes are operating. The soul gets a glimpse of reality when mohaniya Karma is held up. Then it gets the inherent love of truth. The subsidence of Karma will be only temporary because in the end it has to exhaust its : If completely, before it reaches the final goal. Then there is the combined process of subsidence and destruction (kşayo pašama). In this process some portion of Karma is destroyed and some portion is held in abeyance.
(7) Nidhatti is a process by which Karma is made incapable of all process except udvartana and apavartana, increased and decreased realisation. Under certain conditions the Karma particles are so intimately glued to the soul that it becomes impossible to affect them in any wayexcept by increased or decreased realisation.
(8) In the Nikācana even these processes are impossible. In this case the duration, intensity and strength of Karma are determined by the very time of bondage of Karma.?
Yesovijaya compares these processes with some concepts of Karma in the Patañjali Yoga. The five afflictions of nescience, egohood, attachment, repulsion and the will to live are the particular states of rises (udaya) of mohoniya Karma. Prasupta state of Karma can be compared to abadhā kāla and tanu state is compared to the state of subsidence of Karma. Yoga recognised a state of Karma in which some traces may perish before fruition or they may merge into a more powerful Karma. They may remain ineffective forever being overpowered by the more powerful Karma. This may be compared to the Jaina view of Samkramaņa, The Jainas have worked out an elaborate and scientific analysis in fabulous mathematical details of the processes of the operation and fruitition of Karam,
Having given these astounding elaborations, the Jaina seers have said “alam vistarena''.
To seek freedom from the miseries of this life, to seek deliverance we have to free ourselves from the Karma that has already been accumulated and to see that no new Karma is added. The soul gets bound by the constant flow of Karma. This is called Bandha. Mental states, like passion, attachment and aversion, which prepare the ground for the binding of the soul by Karma are called psychic bondage (bhāvabandhana); and the actual binding by the particles of Karma is called dravya--bandha. When passions overcome us, the particles get glued to our souls and bind them just as a
7. Karma Prakyti. Bandhana Karana. 8. Tatia : Studies in Jaina Philosophy. p. 260,