Mahavira His Life and Teachings

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Luzac and Co UK

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MAHĀVĪRA: HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS
developed from the necessity for a systematic exposition of kriyāvāda, which is in its essential feature only a theory of soul and karma. According to this theory, there are as many souls as living individuals, and karma consists of acts, intentional and unintentional, that produce effects on the nature of soul Thus soul is not passive in the sense that it remains untouched or unaffected by what a person does for the sake of some interests but is susceptible to the influences of karma The effects or impressions of individual acts or efforts on soul are called lesā or lesyās. The lesă is, according to the Sūtrakrtānga, a term signifying 'colour '1 The classification of living beings in terms of six colours may be traced in Pārsva's doctrine of six jivanikayas 2 The Ajivika expression, chalabhijātiyo, as explained by Buddhaghosa, implies the same method of classification of men in terms of six
as
)
colours 8 The Mahabharata expression, jīva-ṣatvarnah, hardly leaves room for doubt that the lesā is a term to denote colour. The Buddhist idea of contamination of mind by the influx of impuri
1 Sūtrakrtānga, I, 6 13, Jaina-Sutras, II, p. 196 f.n 2 Acārānga, II, 15 16.
3 Barua, A History of Pre-Buddhistic Indian Philosophy, pp. 309 and 318