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Introduction
Chapter - 4
Cautho Punyapāvādhiyāro
Auspicious Karma (Punya) and Inauspicious Karma (Pāpa)
According to the doctrine of karma, the space occupied by a soul, is also simultaneously filled with karmic matter and there is incessant interaction between the two substances. The conditions of the soul which cause the influx of matter into the soul is called āśrava (which is dealt with in chapter 5). The influx is not stopped even for a single instant of time, till the soul is totally motionless, that is freed from all activities.
Thus, the soul under the influence of passions, produced by the beginningless perversity and possessed of yoga-threefold activities-mental, vocal, and physical-attracts1 the karmic matter which is converted into karma with various potencies of distorting and defiling the soul.
The karmic matter-karma-obscures and/or obstructs the characteristic attributes of the pure and perfect soul and keeps it away from its supreme state of existence.
Classification of karma: Karma is classified into eight main types and 148 sub-types, each as them with a precise function to obscure, cripple, or distort fundamental and other attributes of the soul. They are, further, classified into various groups from different aspects.
Of the eight main types, the four are called ghātī, because they obscure four fundamental qualities of the soul. That is, they obscure (i) knowledge (jñāna), (ii) intuition (darśana), (iii) perverts and deludes the soul and (iv) obstructs the infinite energy. The 1. Just as the wick of a lamp sucks up oil and converts the oil into light, so does the soul, impaired with attachment etc., attracts the Karmic matter and transforms it into karma.
- Tattvärtha Sūtra Bhāṣya Tikā, p.343
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