Outlines of Jainism

Author(s): J L Jaini, F W Thomas
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

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OUTLINES OF JAINISM
This division of karmas is neither arbitrary nor fantastic: it is based upon everyday observation and experience, and it is necessary. In Jainism every effect has a cause. The obvious differences in people's conditions are not for nothing: they are the effects of some cause. Three possible causes suggest themselves : (1) a personal God, who for some mysterious reasons of His own, or for His whim merely, brings about these differences in mankind ; (2) the constitution and modification of matter itself; (3) the soul. A personal God has no place in Jainism : He is not needed. Matter is dead, inert, and cannot be the responsible agent of these differences. There remains, therefore, the conscious soul, which by its actions (karmus) is responsible for the changes in our status of life, etc. Once this position is realized, the classification of karmas is readily understood.
Connected with the idea of karma is the famous doctrine of incarnation or transmigration of souls. Much unnecessary difficulty is raised about this. There are two aspects of it. In one the very existence of the soul is denied; and to this Jainism has nothing to say. In the other the soul is believed to exist, but its full possibilities are not considered. Simplicity is gained at the expense of exactness and truth. The soul's life is cut up into two sharp and arbitrary divisions: this life and the life beyond until eternity. Man sows here, and he reaps here and in the existence after death, in hell or in heaven, till the day of judgment. This is the Muhammadan and Christian doctrine. The reward and forgiveness are also dependent