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Individual and Society in Jainism
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How can he take up this desperate struggle? kahaṁ care kahaṁ citthe kahamāse kaha sayel Kaham bhanjanto bhāsanto pāva kammar na bandhaill
"How to walk, how to stand, how to sit, how to lie down, how to eat, and how to speak, without binding undesirable Karma?”
The Daśavaikālika Sūtra (IV. 7), after giving a detailed description of the harm people do to other creatures merely by carelessness, puts these question, and immediately lets the answer follow :
jayaṁ care jayam citthe jayamāse jayaṁ sayel jayam bhurjanto basanto pāva kammam na bardhaill
"By walking with care, standing with care, sitting with care, lying down with care, eating with care, and speaking with care the binding of undesirable Karma can be avoided.”
The Ācārārga Sūtra discusses the subject in full breadth, and the Sūtrakṣitānga Sütra which goes more into the depth of the abstruse problem, goes so far as to state (II. 4) that the soul is binding bad Karma at any time whatsoever, even if it does not directly do evil actions, i.e., even in sleep or in a state of unconsciousness. For as a man who has made up his mind to kill a certain person at the first best opportunity, goes about with his murderous intention day and night, and as his sub-conscious mind is constantly filled with those hostile sentiments towards that person, just so the individual is constantly filled with hostile sentiments towards the whole of creation, as long as he is inwardly prepared to satisfy, as soon as they will arouse him, his physical instincts, at the cost of the well-being of any other creature.
There is, according to the Sūtras, only one way by which the individual can save himself from binding bad Karma and that is the ‘Pratyākhyāna, 'i.e. the solemn vow of restriction concerning harmful
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