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OUTLINES OF JAINA PHILOSOPHY
authority. They hold that it is a system in itself, subject to some definite laws inherent in its own constitution. Certain phenomena occur regularly in certain circumstances and not otherwise. There is a universal law of causation operating in the universe. The phenomena of life and consciousness are not similar to the phenomena of matter or energy. In pure material activity, there is growth by addition in dead objects which is a product of chemical law only, whereas a conscious being takes to itself particles foreign to those that are already in the body and changes their nature and assimilates them with its own body. Moreover, living beings reproduce themselves in their species. These characteristics are not possessed by dead matter. Jainism regards souls to be real and indefinite in number. Each soul possesses some individual characteristics different from others. The doctrine which gives us some explanation of our individual characteristics, i.e., some satisfactory answer to the factors of our individuality which we have at present and tells us how these factors were produced as the result of the forces generated in the past is known as the doctrine of karma. In other words, the doctrine of karma is the law that interprets our actions and reactions found in the form of introspection as well as behaviour.
According to Jaina philosophy, every individual soul possesses infinite intuition, infinite knowledge, infinite power, and infinite bliss. All these attributes belong by nature to every soul in its perfection. Mundane souls are not perfect because their knowledge, energy, etc., are found to be restricted. They are not perfectly free to enjoy complete knowledge and unrestricted bliss. Why is it so? What restricts their innate faculty of knowing, etc.? The answer is: They are infected by something foreign which veils their natural faculties. This foreign element is known as karma. Jainism does not mean by karma 'work or deed. According to Jaina conception, karma is an aggregate of material particles which are very fine and are imperceptible to the senses. It enters into the soul and produces changes in it. It is a forni of matter which produces certain conditions in the mundane souls that are suffering from the shackles of birth and death from beginningless time.
The entire cosmos is full of that kind of fine matter which can become karma. Through the actions of body, mind, and speech,
