SAMVARA

 

     

     The next group of karmas, which demand our attention, is Mohaniya, which is of two kinds, Darsana-Mohaniya and Charitra Mohaniya. The causes of the former kind are, (a) showing disrespect to the Kevali (the soul who has conquered the four kinds of his Ghatia karmas and has attained to omniscience), (b) finding fault with the Scripture of truth, i.e. the teaching of Jainism, (c) regarding a true Muni as a charlatan, (d) imputing impiety to the residents of heavens, and (e) treating religion with contempt.

 

     Charitra-Mohaniya is caused by such conduct as the failure to control desires and passions, abuse, idle talk, causing pain to another, keeping evil company, grief, delight in injuring others, heartless-ness, back-biting, despising virtuous men, and the like. The sex-passion peculiar to women is caused by becoming deeply attached to another man's wife, and by developing habits of thought and traits of character peculiar to women; the male sex-passion by milder forms of anger and greed, by sexual purity and by having no desire for the embellishment of one's body; and the neuter sex-passion by the intensity of the four kinds of passions (anger, pride, deceit and greed) castration unnatural gratification of sexual lust, imputation of unchaste to a chaste and virtuous woman and by madly falling in love with the married spouse of another.

 

     The causes of the specific energies of the four kinds of Ayuh karma are those which determine the duration of the association of the taijasa and the Karma Shareers with the body of gross matter. This depends on the quality of the material of the outer body and on the nature of its association with the other two, and is ultimately traceable to the good or bad Karmas of the Jiva himself.

 

Of the four kinds of Ayuh karma, the first namely Deva Ayuh, depends on the Vaikriyaka sarira of Devas which results from pure thoughts and actions, such as observance of vows, non-injuring, truthfulness, chastity, non-stealing and non- attachment. According to the Scripture no one who has already engendered the Ayuh karma of life in hells (nark Ayuh) can have sufficient strength of will left to observe the five vows of a Jaina house- holder. The second, i.e. Manushya Ayuh is the fruit of actions of a middling type, such as partial control of senses, desires, passions, and the like.

 

     The third, or the animal form of life, is forced on the soul in consequence of slavery to senses, regardless of the means employed for their gratification. Sensual lust, deceit the preaching of falsehood for procuring livelihood, excessive grief, intense aversion to any particular being or thing, giving free reins to imagination to dwell upon the details of past or expected future experiences of sexual and other kinds of bodily pleasures, and praying for future prosperity to indulge in the delights of senses to the full, are some of the causes that lead to re-birth in the animal kingdom, and determine the longevity of the different types of animal life.

 

     The fourth kind of Ayuh, i.e., that peculiar to the residents of hells, is the consequence of the worst forms of falsehood, parigraha (attachment to the objects of senses, passions, evil thoughts, Hinsa (injury), and the like.

 

     The duration* of life in the four Gatis (conditions of life, Deva Manushya etc), is given by the Siddha Bhagawan to vary from less than 48 minutes in the human and Tiryanch kingdoms to 33 saguaros (oceans, a very large number) of years in the highest heaven and lowest hell is 10,000 years in the first hell, and the same is the shortest duration of Deva Ayuh in the lowest heaven.

     

*(To understand the nature of the Ayuh karma, it is necessary to bear in mind the fact that birth and death are two alternating phases of life of the soul involved in the cycle of transmigration. Neither pure spirit nor matter is, in any sense, liable to suffer death, since the unit of each is a simple, that is to say, indivisible and indestructible substance, and, therefore, not liable to disintegration.

 

The Karma sarira of the samsara Jiva, which is the product of the union of spirit and matter, is the factor which determines the liability to birth and death, for so long as it exists-- and it is only destroyed just prior to the obtainment of final emancipation-- it remains liable to changes of form resulting from the processes of inflow of matter into, and of its removal from, the constitution of the soul. Time, the ubiquitous medium of change, aptly called kala (death), because of a change of condition being the essence of death, also tends to bring about a dissolution of form, in consequence of the operation of bodies on one another. Thus, while the bondage of the soul is prolonged by the fresh influx of matter, great changes take place periodically, qualitatively and quantitatively, in the composition and structure of the Karma Shareer. When the soul's association with its outer body is rendered impossible in consequence of these changes, or from any other cause, it departs from it, and is then said to die. Its death, however, is a signal for a fresh outburst of its organizing activities elsewhere, for it is immediately attracted into a new womb, and at once proceeds to organize-- mechanically, no doubt-- a new outer body for itself. The force which determines the length of the period of the association between the soul and its outermost body is called the Ayuh karma. This association is liable to come to an end either

 (1) Naturally, as the culmination of the incessant processes of change and readjustment going on internally, or (2) By the separation of the soul from its gross body, in consequence of the impairment or destruction of some vital organ or organs. The distinction between these two kinds of causes of death lies in the fact that, while the association of the soul with its gross body is rendered impossible in consequence of the changes in the structure of the Karma Shareer in the one case, in the other it is due to the impairment or destruction of some vital organ of the outermost body itself. Hence, premature death is a possibility of experience where the outermost body is liable to be destroyed accidentally, but not where it enjoys an immunity from accidents, as is the case with the Vaikriyaka body (of Devas and residents of hells), the parts of which, as the Scripture shows, immediately join again on being pierced or cut. Those who maintain that no one can die before his time, necessarily deny premature death, but they forget that the force which regulates the natural duration of life necessarily resides in the Karma sarira, while an accidental termination of life is the result of forces operation from without. The un-consumed residue of Ayuh karma is, in cases of accidental death, dissipated at once.

 

     It is also evident from the nature of the Ayuh karma that the idea of a perpetuation of the physical life is a self-contradictory one. The Ayuh karma is like a lump of sugar placed in a flowing channel of water, and is bound to be dissolved sooner or later. Nor is it possible to reinforce a force generated in a past life, for the nucleus of the past is like the effervescence of aerated water which cannot be augmented by any means.)

 

  There is no premature death in the celestial or nether regions, though the beings belonging to the human and Tiryanchas Gatis may die before the exhaustion of their Ayuh karma.

 

     The causes of the principle Nama karma prakriti broadly speaking, resolve themselves into two general types the Shubha (auspicious) and the Ashubha (inauspicious). Those of the first kind are pure holy thoughts, straightforwardness, honest behavior, frankness candor, fair-dealing, love of truth, and the like; while those of the second are trickery, dishonesty, perversion of truth, falsehood, cunning keeping false weights and measures, preparing false accounts, making faces mimicry, prejudice fanaticism, merriment at the malformation of others, and all other actions of a similar type which imply a distorted frame of body, or mind, or both.

     

The causes of the Tirthankara Nama karma prakriti, the holiest and most auspicious of all the Shubha energies of karma, are: 1 perfect faith, 2 control of passions, 3 observance of vows, 4 constant meditation on the Tattvas, 5 fear of re-birth (samsara), 6 unstinted charity, 7 performance of austerities, 8 protection of Munis (ascetics) engaged in Tapa, 9 nursing and otherwise tending sick saints, 10 devotion to the omniscient Tirthankara and reflection of His virtues and attributes, 11-12 reverence for the Acharya (Pontill, the Upadhyaya (Teacher or Preceptor), 13 reverence for the Scripture, 14 due observance of the six essential rules of conduct [(i) daily meditation, (ii) praise of the 24 Tirthankaras, (iii) salutation of the Master, (iv) Self- contemplation with a disclaimer of the sense of attachment of the physical body], 15 teaching and preaching the doctrines of Jainism, with a view to remove the darkness of ignorance from the world, and 16 cherishing great love for all true believers.

 

     It is worth while to note that the Nama karma is chiefly concerned with the formation of the limbs of the physical body which is organized by the soul with its own inherent energy. At the end of each form of life a mechanical re- adjusting of the 'liquid' compound consisting of the Jiva and the matter of its two inner bodies, the Karma and the taijasa, takes place, altering its constitution and the type of its rhythm, in obedience to the influence of the forces stored up in the mass. The resulting form is the seed of the next life, the rhythm of which represents the sum-total of the forces which are to come into play in the body to be organized in the new surroundings to which it is immediately mechanically drawn. The number of these types of rhythm-- Plato would have called them 'Ideas'-- is 84,000,000 as given in the Scripture. It is the rhythm of the seed like compound of spirit and matter which, consisting, as it does, of the different kinds of karmic energies, is responsible for the formation of the various limbs of the body. Each time that the soul, enshrouded in its two inner coats of matter, enters a new 'womb' suitable for the organization of a body, it absorbs or attracts to itself, particles of matter which, in consequence of the operation of the different kinds of energies, residing in the Karma sarira, are used for the organizing of the numerous bodily organs. The complexity of the organism is thus due to the complexity of the forces residing in the tiny globule of spirit and matter-- the Karma sarira.