The Truth

Author(s): O P Jain
Publisher: Veer Nirvan Granth Prakashan Samiti

Page 53

THE TRUTH
The external circumstances and our own efforts play a big role in the effectiveness of the fruits of karmas. The karma prakritis are merely a set of forces which the soul possesses and the soul still has the power to mould those forces depending upon the circumstances. It is like possessing a set of cards, in a game of cards, and the result depends to a large extent upon the ingenuity of the player. Some players lose even with good cards, while others can win even with bad cards. In the same way, the soul with its own efforts can turn the karma prakritis to its advantage or disadvantage. This effort lies in avoiding circumstances with the help of which the bad type of karmas can give rise to passions, pain and misery and to seek surroundings where only good type of karmas can be effective and the bad ones are merely shed, as they have to be after maturity, without being effective. To give an example, suppose there are two persons whose passion of anger is to be roused by the karmas at a certain time. One of them happens to be in the company of wicked persons and the other in a temple hearing to a learned saint. The first person will easily pick up quarrel on some flimsy ground with his friends, while the latter's attention is fixed on learning the benefits of virtuous deeds and there can be no cause for him to be angry, even though his soul will be inclined to get angry very soon. Thus, in one case, the external circumstances have helped the karmas to act and produce results and new karmas of the same type have been bound: in the other case, the karmas have been shed without producing results i. e., no new karmas of the same type have been bound. It is true that karmas influence our mind so much that the person may not have the knowledge or desire to avoid circumstances favourable for a particular karma to give its effect. It is here that true efforts are needed. It is a common experience that to achieve the same goal (for example passing a certain examination) some people need more efforts than others. Effort is merely against the particular karmas which obstruct our way to achieve the goal. Where the karmas are mild, less effort is needed. The same circumstances do not affect all persons similarly, and each is affected according to his own karmas in operation at that time. It is seen to be so in everyday life.
5.10 Samvara : Stoppage of inflow and bondage of karmas is done by removing the causes of asrava and bandh. This is done by à sevenfold action, as given below, with mind, speech and body, the main aim being to root out passions and to keep the soul as close to its own natural attributes as possible.