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A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
KARTṚTVA (ACTIVITY) AND BHOKTṚTVA OF THE KARMAN
Some philosophers have ignored this distinction and have analysed the nature of the karma with reference to kartṛtva and bhoktṛtva from the noumenal point of view. This has created several problems, because in this, there is a confusion in the nature and the function of the suddha jīva and saṁsārī jīva (empirical individual). Similarly, this view has also ignored the karma and the pure matter. According to this view, jiva is not the doer of the karma and the enjoyer of the fruits of karma, because karma is essentially material in nature and is not very much concerned with the immaterial jīva. They ask a question regarding the relation between the immaterial jīva and the material karma. How can the immaterial jīva be related to the material karma? Therefore, they say the relation is farfetched and the karmic particles are due to the matter as originating from matter and the soul cannot act upon it.1
1
In this analysis, the jiva is not considered to be related with the material karma with reference and enjoyment, because the conscious jīva cannot be related to the un-conscious karma. Jiva (spiritual substance) cannot be intimately connected with karma which is unconscious and material. But we should realise that empirical soul is associated with the material karma and the material karma is the modification of the pure pudgala. This association of the jiva with the karmic particles is due to its activity (yoga) in body, mind and speech. If the self and the matter were to be in their pure state only, there would not be a question of the inter-mingling of the jiva and the karmic particles. The karmic particles get associated with and they enter into the self which is the empirical individual and not the pure self. In this sense, we can say that the karma is associated with the empirical jīva from the phenomenal point of view and not from the noumenal point of view. This inter-mingling of the karma with the soul is very often compared with the mixing of water and milk. Again matter which is pure does not transform itself into karmic particles on its own but this transformation is possible due to the soul's activity.
Pancama Karmagrantha-prastāvanā, pp. 11-12
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