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IV
INTRODUCTORY
221
some who were more contemplative, other-worldly and attracted towards life negation than the ordinary. It is these people who helped the growth of asceticism. But before the development of asceticism there was the natural development of the ideas of rebirth and kayman. There was also the development of corresponding metaphysics. If spiritual emancipation is a fact there must be a number of births for its realization. This leads to the doctrine of rebirth. The selfsame of emancipation again presupposes corruption of the spirit in the state of worldly existence. But what is this corruption due to? It is due to beginningless nescience about truth. We have studied nescience in the last chapter. According to the Jaina, nescience presupposes the soul's association with karman which is known as unseen potency (adysta), predisposition (vāsanā), energy (śakti), trap (pāśa) etc. in other systems. Karman is needed to explain variety and unequality. In this chapter we shall record a few determinant characteristics of the doctrine of karman as found in the Jaina system with comparative reference to other systems. In the preceding chapter we studied the nature of the fundamental factor responsible for the relation between spirit and non-spirit, that is, the world order. But here we shall record the modus operandi of the non-spirit upon the spirit or, more accurately, the process whereby an action (karman) produces its reaction (phala). Among the systematic schools, only the Nyāya-Vaiseșika admits God as the necessary condition for the fruition of the action (karman) which remains as an unseen potency (adrsta) consisting in merit and demerit in the soul. The Yoga admits God only as an object of worship or meditation and not as an agent in the fruition of the karman. The Sānkhya-Yoga, the Jaina and the Buddhist and the Mimāmsaka regard the unseen potency itself as competent to produce its fruit in time. Though in the Brahmasútral of Bādarāyana the agency of God in the dispensation of the fruits of acts, moral and immoral, is advocated with vehemence it however loses metaphysical validity in the system of Sankara who accords a provisional place to Personal God in his monistic Vedānta. Personal God as the creator, sustainer and destroyer of the world order is necessary only so long as māyā holds sway. But māyā is unreal as a metaphysical entity and as such God's place is only provisional and not more than penultimate. The problem how can the unconscious and inactive potency develop into fruition is explained in various ways. The potency is due to karman (action) and as such is also designated by the term karman. The nature of the predispositions (vāsanās) or afflictions (klesas) or passions (kaşāyas), in one word, the impurity of the spirit determines the character, quantity, duration and intensity of the karman or the
1 phalam ata upapatteḥ-BS, III, 2. 38.
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