________________
The Vibrancy of Pudgala: Thinking about... : 87
experiences in our souls according to certain regular patterns."'S7 Karmic matter acts as the conditions in which a jsva interacts and struggles within the world. Jyoti Jain highlights that the doctrine of karma directly comes out of the Jain view on matter.58 Just how does karma attach to the jīva, however? Additionally, what exactly does karma do? As I explained earlier, matter, through its original relationship to the soul, forms the embodiment of the jīva. However, it is the passions and actions of the embodied jīva that creates the inflow of karmic matter. The nature of the bondage of karma is self-perpetuating because in order for matter to be accumulated, matter needs to be there in the first place. What is interesting is that Jain philosophers have articulated the precise types of karma there are. Indeed, there are weight primary classes and one hundred and forty-eight subclasses” of karma, in which "[t]he primary or principal classes of karman obstruct, cover, obscure, distort, pervert, or prevent the full expression of the...soul.”99 I wish to dwell on these very words; these words are verbs, indeed actions, which karmic matter does to the soul. It is no longer the instance in which matter simply exists but rather, matter is always described as performing some sort of action. Indeed, matter does something, but not just a singular something; different types of matters do different types of actions. Four of the classifications affect the soul in ways to reduce its knowledge; the other four classifications affect the soul in the sense that it physically en-fleshes it. Here we can see the obvious connection between vital materialism and Jain karma theory; matter becomes a literal site of productivity in its relationship with the jiva. When Sikdar writes about matter and karma, he very curiously writes that matter ends up being in the service of Soul.”60 This service is not only in the formation and embodiment of bodies but also in the obscuration of knowledge of said bodies.
Jyoti Jain notes that “[m]atter is the basis of all worldly existence," and it is such an existence that keeps the soul from achieving its liberative goal. This experience of worldly existence culminates in pleasure, pain, life and death. Interestingly, in a lecture entitled “Definition of Religion in Jainism," Shugan Jain explored the notion of purity and impurity in Jain religious practice. In this lecture, he argued that matter is considered impure, because it is bonded with these experiences of pain and pleasure. I do not wish to challenge the religious imperative on purity, however, what I wish to emphasize is that even in the religious context, this implies a certain level of activity or capacity for matter. Matter has thing-power, albeit, detrimental thingpower. Sikdar calls these experiences “material functions toward [the soul].”62 Matter does something for the soul to reconcile with, to work out. Jyoti Jain, quoting an unnamed Western scholar, highlights this relationship in a beautiful way, "The Jaina idea of karman; is an animating element of dialectical edification...."63 Matter edifies the soul; matter serves a function.
In many ways, I see a comparison between the assemblage of vital materialism and the interaction of matter and the jsva. In every new moment in which matter and soul come together, something new occurs d whether it is a new embodiment or shift in status - but ultimately, this is a productive work. In part, karma does indeed create the wrong faith, knowledge and action, but it also conditions the possibility for the correction of such. All I wish to do when I attempt this
