Sambodhi 2007 Vol 31

Author(s): J B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 64

58
MUKUL RAJ MEHTA
SAMBODHI
experience of happiness and unhappiness. Since this is intended in a more than psychological sense there was obviously need for a mediating agency which would connect Karman with its result which might be separated from it widely in time and space. Brahmanical systems tended to postulate God as the agency which rewards or punishes good and evil deeds. Jainism, like Buddhism, however, attributed an unseen power to Karman itself which brought about its results at the appropriate time. One implication of this doctrine is that the distinction of good and evil must be held to be objective and independent of subjective relativity. Another implication is that action must be held to create an unconscious and persistent force which remains connected with the psyche of the agent and has the capacity of directing it into situations appropriate to its own fruition and controlling the affective reactions of the experience arising from such situations. Beginning as a state of the mind or Bhavakarman, action generates a bodily resultant, Dravyakarman or Pudgalakarman." That good and evil are originally distinct states of the mind, is commonly accepted by the Jainas and the Buddhists.18 The distinction is not one of obedience or disobedience to a divinely proclaimed law but one of innate quality which may be subjectively perceived in terms of emotional direction. The Jainas and the Buddhists, however, differ in relation to the nature of the force generated by action. The Buddhists think of it as an unconscious psychic force, a latent disposition-Vasana or Samskara-which is responsible for the projection of the world which is appropriate to the psyche. It is in the idealistic school of Buddhism that this doctrine becomes fully consistent and reaches its highest effectiveness. The Jainas, however, think of the resultant of psychic action in terms of an accumulation of matter which is absorbed by the soul. This matter is subtle and invisible consisting of extremely minute particles which form infinite aggregate (Vargana). These attach themselves to different points on the location of the soul.19 These Karmic material aggregates are of eight basic types (mula-prakrti) and mature on different occasions.20 Their maturing obscures or distorts the faculties of the soul.
This materialistic interpretation of Karman is quite distinctive of the Jaina tradition. It has been condemned as primitive and, then again, admired as scientific. The infinite will or Virya of the pure spirit is reduced and transformed in the state of bondage to the threefold Yoga viz., physical, mental and vocal activity which constantly depends on the operation of material factors. There can