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Influx of Karma (Asrava)
41
and conduct attributes in their low level states, an enlightened being [at a spiritual level far from perfection] gets bonded with various types of material Karma. [172] Annotation
In case of a worldly living being, not in the bliss state, there happens disturbance or fluctuation in the state of the soul. Without such disturbance, the soul would have become omniscient and have been in the perfect blissful state. The disturbance is also evident from the fact that the soul's attention shifts from one object to another. The soul's attention shifts from the Self. The magnitude of disturbance depends on the imperfection in the knowledge, perception, and conduct attributes. Such disturbance of the Self is continuously recorded in the “Kārmika Bank account'. Technically, stanza 171 reveals that even by such disturbance in the soul the Kārmika bonding takes place. As explained earlier, in case of an enlightened being (SamyagDrști) the magnitude of duration (Sthiti) and intensity (Anubhāga) of such bonding is much less as compared to that of a spiritually ignorant (MithyāDịști). It may be added that though an Arahanta has one Pratyaya named Yoga, yet he is completely free from the new bonding because he is in the supreme state of perfection of knowledge, perception, and conduct attributes. Question: Stanza 170 points out that an enlightened being with or
without imperfections is free from the new Kārmika bonding whereas stanza 172 points out that an enlightend being far from spiritual perfection gets bonded with new material
Karma? How can one resolve this apparent contradiction? Answer: Due to very little amount of the new Kārmika bonding an
enlightened person even far from spiritual perfection is called free from the new bonding. However, the new bonding is not zero to such enlightened being. In this regard the following points may also be helpful.
