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backgrounds in this life or in previous lives, these effects were set in motion by causes. 36
Inviolable law of Nature :
There is a sacrosanct and inviolable edict of Nature, according to which repercussions of one's thoughts or actions by reward or retribution as the case may be, are inevitable. Howsoever secretly a sin may be committed, it is bound to attract proportionate chastisement. No one can escape his nemesis. Nature cannot be hoodwinked. Any sinful thought nurtured in one's mind, will bring upon oneself retributive wrath of Nature. By the same reason, every act of kindness whether witnessed by others or not, gets automatically recorded and is suitably rewarded by the invisible hand of natural justice.
Various events of our present life are repercussions of our attitudes and actions from past life-times. Our past is reflected in our present; our present moulds our future. This is the theory of Karma. Linked inseparably with the theory of reincarnation, this Karmic theory explains our present circumstance of life on one hand and provides an answer, on the other hand, to the question of how to make our future brighter and more beautiful. If one clearly comprehends the implication of this fact, one can develop right perspective for giving proper direction to one's present life.
The question may arise as to the mechanism that would ensure fruits of action-attitude taken in any corner of the universe by a particular living being from among the multitudes to inevitably reach him without fail. The explanation given by Jainism is as follows :
In the entire macrocosm including the environment surrounding us, over and above visible gross things, there are very fine, invisible material particles at subatomic level. Depending upon the degree of their grossness or subtleness,
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