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A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
For instance, the potter is not the cause of the pot although he prepares the pot; In common sense of language, the potter is considered to be efficient cause of the pot. But in the real sense of the relation, the potter is only an occasion but the clay is the material cause of the
pot. 1
But this analogical example is not adequate because the relation between the pot and the potter is neither inherent relation nor very intimate relation. But the relation between the self and karman is inti. mate like the mixing of the milk and the water. Therefore, the associa. tion of the karman with the self cannot be compared with the causal relation of the potter and the pot. The intimate combination of the kārmic particles with the soul has an effect of synthesis and one neces. sarily affects the other. This does not happen in the case of the relation between the potter and the pot. The ātman is not only an occasion, or the efficient cause of the kārmic particles enter the soul, but it is the kartā in the sense, due to its activity, in body, speech and mind kārmic particles enter the soul. Similarly, ātman is the bhoktā, the enjoyer of the fruits of the karma. Due to the various activities of the ātman in its empirical form, the kārmic particles have attracted and they become intimately associated with the soul. There. fore, ātman is considered to be the kartā. And because the ātman in its empirical sense has the experience of the fruits of the karma, it is also bhokta.
LIMITS OF KARMA According to the Jaina theory of karma, karma is intimately associated with the body, mind and the ātman (psychy), of the individual. These have their defined limitations and they function within these limitations. Similarly, the karma that is intimately associated with the individual self has to operate within these limitations. If we do not accept the limitations of the karma, then the karma would be all-pervasive like the ākāśa, We may also say that the self has the characteristics of pervading the body that it occupies and this is due to karma, Due to karma, the ätman gets involved and associated with the body that it occupies in its full pervasion. When the soul
1 Pañcama Karmagrantha - prastāvanā, p. 13.
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