________________
THE NATURE OF KARMA
follows from this that the soul did not exist in a condition of perfection prior to its present incarnation, and that the existence of some force capable of dragging jīvas into different wombs is a condition precedent to their birth in the different grades of life. But how shall we conceive force operating on soul and dragging it into an organism, if not as the action of some kind of matter? It is, therefore, clear that the soul must have been in union with some kind of matter prior to its birth in any given incarnation.
So far as the nature of matter which is found in union with the soul in its pre-natal state is concerned, it most obviously must be of a very sukṣma (fine) quality, since the fertilized ovum, which, roughly speaking, is the starting point of the life of an organism is itself a very minute, microscopical structure. The body of this fine material, called kārmāņa śarīra (the body of karmic matter) in the technical language of the Jaina Siddhānta, is the cause and instrument of transmigration, and, along with the one called the taijasa* śarīru (body of radiant matter), is a constant companion of the soul in all its different forms assumed in the course of its transmigration. Both these bodies undergo changes of form from time to time, thereby leading to different kinds of births; they are destroyed only when mokşa is attained, which means perfect freedom of the soul from all kinds of matter.
The necessity for the existence of the kürmāņa śarīra will also become clear by taking into consideration the effect its absence will have on the soul of a dead man, i.e., a disembodied spirit. Obviously the absence of all kinds of limiting and crippling influences will at once enable such a disembodied soul to manifest its natural perfection in th: fullest degree, making it the equal of Gods and the enjoyer of the supreme status of Paramātman (godhood) at a stroke. Death, then, instead of being the dreaded foe, as it is considered now, will be the greatest benefactor of all kinds of living beings, and the attainment of supreme
* The taijasa sarira is a body of luminous matter, and is a necessary link between the other two bodies of the soul--the kārmāna and the audārika (the body of gross matter). The necessity for a link of this kind is to be found in the fact that the matter of the kārmāņa barīra is too sukşña (fine) and that of the audārika too gross to allow any direct or immediate interaction between them, and that an intermediate type of matter is required to connect them with each other.
