________________
A SOURCE-BOOK IN JAINA PHILOSOPHY
459
. One man's karma cannot be transformed to another. If that were so, the efforts of the jīva would be futile because the jīva would not know that its good actions would give him good results. It would then be possible in such cases that one does good actions and someone else would enjoy the fruits of that karma. This would not be an adequate explanation for the distribution of karma.
THE FUNCTION OF KARMA The function of karma is to get the soul involved in this wheel of life and death. As long as the flow of kärmic bondage continues, the soul gets involved in this wheel and is not free. This is the general function of kärmic action. In the specific sense different types of karma have their different functions, in creating the bondage, to the individual soul.
TYPES OF KARMA Jaina karma theory has distinguished karma into eight types; 1. jñānāvarāṇīya karma, 2. darśanāvaraņa, 3. vedanīya, 4. mohaniya 5. nāma, 6. ayu, 7. gotra and 8. antarāya.2
Out of these eight karmas - jñānävaraniya, darśanīvaraņa, mohaniya and antarāya are gh iti karmas, because they obscure the inherent nature and capacity of the soul, like jñāna and darśana.Vedanīya, āyu, nāma and gotra karmis are aghatī karmas because they do not affect the original capacity of the soul nor do they obscure the capacity. Therefore, they are called aghāti karmas.
The consciousness is the characterisation of the soul. The soul has infinite energy. Similarly, it is characterised by infinite knowledge (anantajñāna), infinite intuition (ananta darśana), infinite bliss
1 Dvātrirsikā, Ācārya Amitagati, 30-31. 2 (8) Uttarādhyayana 33, 2-3. (b) Sihănah ga 8, 3, 596, (c) Prajma
panā, 23, 1, (d) Bhagavati, śataka 6, uddeśaka 9 p. 453 (e) Tattvārthasūtra 8, 5 (f) Prathama karmagrantha, gāthā 3,
Pancasangraha 2, 2. 3 (a) Pañcadhyāyi 2, 998.
(b) Gommațasāra-karmakānda 9 4 (a) pañcādhyāyi 2, 999.
(b) Gommațasāra karmakānda 9
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
