________________
principle of cause and effect, so that the saying - 'as one sows as must he reap', presents the whole doctrine in a nutshell. Every action, whether mental or physical, is a sowing of the 'seed' or in the technical language of the Hindu Philosophy, an engendering of karma. In the act of sowing the seed, or engendering the karma, the soul has the choice of acting or refraining from action, but when once the seed is sown or karma engendered, its freedom is replaced by an inevitable liability to bear its consequences. The harvest which is sown must be reaped, gathered and assimilated in its unabated fullness. That is what constitutes the bondage of the soul. Karma, therefore, is a kind of force which compels the soul to bear the consequences of its right or wrong actions, and this force originates in the very action itself which is performed by the soul and the very moment of its performance."
The Dravya karma is nothing but the particles of karmic matter. It is material in nature and enters into the self. The psychical karma is mostly the thought activity of mind. The psychical effects and states produced by the association of physical karma are known as psychical. They are mutually interactive from beginningless time. 16 The physical karma (Dravya karma) and the psychical karma (Bhāva karma) are mutually related to each other as cause and effects. 17 The Relation of Divine and Karma
The Divine soul is immaterial and karma is material in nature. The empirical soul is involved in the wheel of transmigration from the beginningless time. In the Karma grantha, we observe "As heat can unite with iron and water with milk, so karma unites with the self." 18 In Tattvärthasāra it is stated that the mundane self is obscured by karmic matter from the beginningless time, and on accout of its bondage with the karmas, the self is united like the gold and silver when melted together, to become one mixture. 19 Though the soul is pure and potentially Divine yet it becomes subject to the karmic matters. Karma covers the self as the cloud covers the light of the sun.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
