C.J. Jung, while
distinguishing, personal and the collective unconscious, hints at the
possibility of comparing the archetypes of the collective Unconscious to
the Karma in Indian thought the collective unconscious stands for the
objective psyche. The personal layer ends at the earliest memories of
infancy, but the collective layer comprises the pre-infantile period that
is the residue of ancestral life. The force of Karma works implicitly and
determines the nature and development of personality. The Karma aspect is
essential to the deeper understanding of theatre of an archetype. 8
Although it is possible to say that Karma has essentially a reference4 to
individual differences and hence a personal acquisition, yet each India
has a common heritage which he shares with the community and which shapes
his being. The archetypes refer to the common heritage. To this extent
they regret to the Karma aspect.
However, Jung was
primarily concerned with and interpretations of dermas and fantasies in
presenting his theory of the collective unconscious. He would have reached
the doctrine of Karma the store-house of the physical ad psychical
effective of the past.
It is difficult say who
ans. where the Karma doctrine originated in India. Some have traced the
origin of Karma in the principle of Rta. Rta is the socmic principle. It
pervades the whole world, and gods and man must obey it. It is the
anticipation of the law of Karma. In the revedic hymns the doctrine
of Karma is yet in its infancy as Rta. The doctrine does not appear in the
old hymns of the Rgeda. The edit seers were mainly interested in
the good of this life, and when death came they went the way of their
fathers to the world where Yaa, the first to die ruled. The doctrine us
have developed against a number of other doctrines about creation. Some
regarded time as the determinant factor of creation. Others believed in
nature(svabhava)as the prominent factor. There were other theories
as well. The Jainas rejected these doctrines and said that even time and
svabhava are determined by Karman. 10 Concept of Karma must have
existed at least a thousand years before the beginning of the Christian
era, and has since become the basis ad center of religious though.11 it
is probable that Karama and rebirth must have been pre-Aryan doctrines
which were important in the Sramaba culture later assimilated in the
Brahman thought by the time the Upanishads were clearly formulated. The
India view of Karma was doubtless of on Aryan province, and it was a kind
of a natural loaw.12 Transmigration of the soul was perhaps one of the
oldest forms in which the belief in the after-life was held. Karma was
closely liked with this doctrine. With the gradual emphasis of asceticism
under the influence of the sramana culture, came the awareness of one�s
responsibility to shape one�s personality here and here-after. However,
the doctrine has been widely accepted in ancient Indian thought, except
for the Caravaka. In the samnyasa Upanisad we are told that the
Jiavas are bound by Kara. 13 and while thus we feted yourselves with
the effect of our deeds. In the Mahabharata, the emphasis is on
the force of Karma. Of the three kinds of Karma , prarabdha, samcita
ad agami mentioned in the Bhagavadgita, agami and
samcita can be overcome by knowledge. In Buddhism, as there is no
substance as soul, what transmigrates is not a person but his Karma. When
the series of mental states which constitutes the self resulting from a
chain of acts ends, there would still be some acts and their effects which
sontumue; and the vijnana projects into the future duce to the
course of the effects of Karma. The Buddihista distinguish acts
accompanied by asrava (impure acts) from pure acts which are not
accompanied by asrava. Samasara is the effect of Karma. Our
present happiness and misery are the fruit of what we have ourselves done
in the past. Operation of Karma can be considered as a principle of more
life, as force limiting and particularizing personality as as a principle
of conservation of energy in physical world.15 but Buddhism maintains
that involuntary actions, whether of body, speech and mind do not
constitute karma, ad there fore cannot bring about the results accruing to
karma. It only means that unwilled actions do not modify characte.16 Karma
theory has been expressed in a variety of ways �from the most extreme
realism which regard Karma as a compledity of arterial particles in
fetching the soul to the most extreme idealism where it is a species of
newly produced invisible force, it its highest unreal the Jainas give a
realistic view of Karma. It has existed from the pre-Buddhist time. The
idea of the pollution of the soul due to Karma has been largely
allegorical in other religious philosophies in India, while the Jainas
�have adopted it in the ra sense of the word� and have worked out into an
original system.17 the Jaina conception of Karma must have been
completely developed agter a thousand years of Mahavira�s nirvana.
The Sthanaaga, Uttaradhayaana- sutra ad the Bhagavatisutra contain
genera outline of the doctrine, ad the details have been worked out in the
karmagrantha, pancasmgraha and the Karmaprakriti. In working
out the details there have been two schools of thought: I) agamiskas and
ii) Karmagranithikas.
Jainism is, in a sense,
dualistic. The universe is constituted of the two fundamental categories:
jiva (living) and ajiva (non-living) sou (jiva)
has been decribed from the numeral and the phenomenal points of
view,
jiva is pure and perfect. It is simple an without parts. It is
immaterial and formless. 18 it is characterise but etana. It
is pure consciousness. From the phenomenal point of view Jiva is described
as possessing four pranas. It is the lord (prabhu,)
limited to his body (dehanaatre,) still incorporates and it is
ordinarily found with Karma.19 the jiva comes in contact with the
external world, alive the Jiva is active, and the activity is expressed in
threefold forms-the bodily, in speech and mental . this is called yoga
. Yoga brings its after �effects in the form of karmic particles which
veil the pure nature of the soul. The souls are contaminated by the Karma
which is a foreign element, and are involved in the wheel samsara.
This contamination is beginningless, though it his an end. It is
difficult to say how and when sould got included in the wheel of
samsara. Caught in the where of Samasara the soul forgets it serial
nature and the efforts ot reach for the truth are obscured by the
passions. The inherent capacity of the soul for self-realization is also
obstructed by the veil of Karma.20 It is subjected to the forces of
Karma which express themselves first through feelings and emotions, and
secondly in the chains of very subtle kinds of matter invisible to the eye
and the instruments of science. It is then embodied and is affected by the
environment, physical and social and spiritual. We, thus get various types
of soul existence.
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