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Outlines of Karma in Jainism
Dr. Mohan Lal Mehta, M. A. Ph. D.
All phenomena of the universe are linked together in the universal chain of couse and effect No event can occur without having a definite cause behind it To find out the cause and condition under which an effect is produced has always been the aim of the various branches of science and philosophy. Almost all branches of science and philosophy in the world unanimously declare that the law of cause and effect is the most universal of all laws It is the only law which governs all phenomena however gross or fine they may be All the forces of nature whether physical or physical obey this law Every action of cur body, speech, ur mind is the result of some force or power which is its couse At the same time, that which is an effect of some cause becomes in turn the cause of some other effect and thus, the chain goes on extending its sphere.
Under the sway of the all-pervading law of cousation, there is no room left for chance or accident What we generally regard as an accidental event is really a product of some definite cause which is not known to us on account of our limited knowledge In other words, accidents are not fortuitous but they have some definite couse behind them, although we are not always aware of it on account of the limitation of our knowledge. In ancient times, when the scope of knowledge of people was extremely limited they used to explain accidental events by attributing them to some supernatural powers Such accidental effects of unknown causes were called Providential. Really speaking, all accidents have their definite causes whether we know them or not That which appears to be supernatural or Providential to an unscientific mind, is datural or causal and not supernatural or accidental to a scientific mind
