| The term 'karma' means mental, vocal or bodily act as also a trace or an impression that the act leaves behind on the soul. In the present context, the term 'karma' has the latter meaning and consequently the meaning 'the karmic matter constituting the trace'. The trace is material in nature and bears its fruit in, future in this or the next life. The karmic matter of the form of the trace gets bound to the soul on account of its mental, vocal or bodily acts and gets dissociated from it as soon as it bears its fruit. It remains bound wi.th the soul till its fruition is fully experienced by it. |
The formulation of karma theory is the result of the Jaina thinkers' sincere efforts to find answers to the following questions: All souls are equal by nature. What causes inequality in them? What explains the born diversity among different individuals? What is it that gives rise to unequal and vastly diverse states experienced by even one and the same individual at different times? |
The consistency of the life of a soul — the life stretched in the three divisions of time — depends on karma. Again, the theory of rebirth is a natural corollary of the theory of karma. Every act must necessarily be followed by its consequence. If the consequences of our acts have not been experienced in the present life, they necessarily demand a future life for fruition.
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The auspicious acts form and leave behind auspicious traces on the soul. The auspicious traces, material in nature, lead the soul to the attainment of the means of happiness, viz. health, wealth, fame, good faifiily, long life, etc. On the other hand, the inauspicious acts form and leave behind inauspicious traces on the soul, and these inauspicious traces, material in nature, lead-the soul to the attainment of the means of misery. The karmic matter constituting the auspicious traces is regarded as auspicious and the karmic matter constituting the inauspicious traces is regarded as inauspicious.
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| Karmic matter is classified into eight fundamental types. They are: knowledge-covering (jnandvarand) karma, vision-covering (darsandvarflna) karma, feeling-producing (vedaniya) karma, deluding (mohanlya) karma, longevity-determining (dyuh) karma, body-making (ndma) karma, stiitus-determining (gotra) karma and obstructive (antardya) karma. We shall deal with them later on. Of these eight types, knowledge-covering karma, vision-covering karma, deluding karma and obstructive karma are inauspicious because knowledge-covering karma veils the faculty of knowledge, vision-covering karma obscures the faculty of vision, deluding karma deludes and confuses the soul — that is, obstructs right inclination and right conduct — and obstructive karma obstructs our attainment of the desired objects. Each of the remaining four types of karmas are auspicious or inauspicious. Body-making karma causing bad and repulsive bodily traits, longevity-determining karma causing longevity of the infernal class of beings, status-determining karma responsible for the low status, feeling-producing karma producing painful experiences — these are inauspicious karmas. Contrary to them, body-making karma causing good and attractive bodily traits, status-determining karma responsible for the high status, feeling-producing karma producing pleasant experiences and longevity-determining karma causing longevity of the heavenly class of beings, human class of beings and animal class of beings—these are auspicious karmas. |
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