If self, in its journies through different lives,
cannot remain without some activity, and if our activities are prone to
generate various types of karmas, what should one be advised to do : can
he stop his activities ? If he cannot, how can he escape the earning of
fresh karmas, because every activity in this Samsara would bring in fresh
karmic bondages, and one can hardly expect to be totally free from the
cycle of births and deaths.
The legitimacy of these questions is beyond doubt. Key
to the solution is, however, found in the enquiry as to what is that which
attracts the karmic Pudgalas ? We have already noticed that our deeds are
prompted by our intentions known as �Bhavas', and that the duration and
the intensity of our karmas depend mainly upon the intensity of the
feelings, �Bhavas', with which they are done. It follows that if we do a
particular act objectively, honestly, and without being subjectively
involved in the fruits there of, our Bhavas (feelings) in doing the same
the neutralized and the bondage of such karmas, if any, becomes
superficial. Life is action and so action is unavoidable so long as life
persists. But action without attachment is as good as �no-action' - a
situation which is known as �Akarma' in �Gita'. �Sthitaprajna' of Gita is
the ideal of human beings in action. None of the Indian systems of
philosophical thoughts has shunned the duties which one owes to his
family, his society or his nation or to the humanity at large. What is
shunned is doing the same with expectations. Almost all the Tirthankaras
(Prophets) of Jainas hailed from the warrior class called Ksartiyas. Many
of them were Cakravartins (emperors) who had fought bitter wars. But when
they retired they could achieve their goal of total liberation. They could
not have achieved this had they not remained detached while rulings as
Cakravartins, as also while fighting wars. King Janaka, the father of Sita
supplies the brilliant example of how one can even rule a kingdom without
attachment. Action without attachment is, therefore, not unknown to Indian
culture. Hence the Jainism, like other Indian philosophical systems, does
not insist that renunciation of the worldly affairs is a sine quanon of
liberation from Karmic bondage.
