________________
A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
457 The śramaņa Kālodāyi asked Bhagavāna Mahāvira, "Bhagavan ! can we say that jīva experiences the bitter fruits of pāpa karma as bitter 71
Bhagavāna Mabāvīra said, "Yes." Then Mahāvīra was asked to explain the process of experience the fruits of inauspicious karma.
Mahāvīra said, 'just as if one were to eat the food well and cleanly prepared, yet mixed with poison, he may experience the taste of the food as good and tasteful, but the effect of the food, as it contains poison will be gradually harmful to the body. Similarly, the kārmic effect due to the activities actuated by various kaşāyas and the eighteen types of inauspicious deeds from violence upto mithyādarśana may be pleasant in the beginning, but they do show inauspicious effect.
Kālodāyi asked further question, “Bhagavan ! if the jīvas perform good karmas, will the fruits of those karma be good ?”'
Mahāvīra said “Yes'. Then Kālodāyi asked him the process of the fruition of auspicious kurma into merit.
Mahāvira said : just as actions performed due to auspicious merit, one who does not injure any living being and is free from all the 18 sinful acts from violence upto the mithyādarśana (perversity of attitude) will earn punya (auspicious fruits of karma). The auspicious work brings auspicious fruits of karma.3
Just as a machine like the electronic calculator having no intelligence, still makes complicated calculations, which in the case of a human being would require good deal of intelligence, so also karma, though material in nature consisting of kārmic particles, works out the schémata of the effects of kaina. It is not necessary to postulate the presence of fśvara for the dispensing of karma. He is not free to distribute karma as he wants. One man's karma cannot be transformed to another. If this were possible, then freedom of the will have
| 2 3.
Bhagavatt 7, 10. Vyākhyāprajñapti 7; 10 Bhagavati 7, 10
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
