Karma the Mechanism

Author(s): Hermann Kuhn
Publisher: Crosswind Publishing Germany

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KARMA - THE MECHANISM
SUTRAS
SUTRA 13 केवलिश्रुतसङ्गधर्मदेवावर्णवादो दर्शनमोहस्य ॥ १३ ॥ Kevali shruta sangha dharma deva varnavado darshanamohasya (13) Doubt in (or a negative attitude towards) - the omniscient (kevali) - the knowledge contained in the scriptures (shruti) - the fellowship of seekers for the ultimate freedom (sangha) - the path to freedom from all karmic limitations (dharma) and - the inhabitants of higher (celestial) regions (devas) attracts karma that obstructs insight in and understanding of reality. (13)
In the Western hemisphere we generally have the idea that knowledge needs to be laboriously discovered by either experience, research, reflection or ingenious intuition. Yet knowledge how to reach freedom from karmic limitations - as described in the Tattvarthasutra - comes from an entirely different source. It originates in the omniscient, who laid it down on the basis of their own experience.
The omniscient - also called 'pathmakers' (tirthankaras) - are human beings who reached the state of omniscience20 - the 13th stage of de
20 Though omniscience appears to be far from our present reality, we of
ten receive a taste of this ability. These are the moments between dream and waking when we have not left one world completely yet while beginning to become conscious of the other one. Here we often experience seconds or minutes where we are in command of immensely complex knowledge that would solve all the riddles of the world if we could only take it with us.
Even if after waking up completely we shake our head with incredulity and discard the experience because we cannot explain it, that whiff of omniscience nevertheless was reality while it lasted. We definitely felt it, however fleeting it may have been.