We shall now revert to the question, how the Karmas are
formed and bonded with the soul. Let us assume that a soul has Karma body
attached to it. The past impressions on the Karma give rise to kasayas
or the passions. The passions are desires carrying feelings of love and
hate or attachment and aversion. There are four main types of passions �
anger, pride, illusion or deceit and greed. Based on degrees the passions
can be further sub classified. These passions, introduce impurities and
aberrations in the soul. The abilities of the pure soul in the form of
infinite knowledge, perception, etc, are diminished when passions are
introduced. Thus a mundane soul has limited knowledge, perception,
vitality and pleasure. The properties of the pure soul are said to be
obscured by Karma. A Karma is known by the particular properly it
obscures. For example the knowledge of the soul is obscured by knowledge
obscuring Karma. More is the coverage less is the power of knowing of an
individual and vice versa.
A living being is engaged in some kind of activity. The
action may be taken by the body, speech or mind or some combination of
these agencies. These actions and accompanying passions induce vibrations
in the soul. The nature of vibration depends on the type of action and the
magnitude of vibration depends on the degree of passion. Two things happen
due to vibrations in the soul. First, the Karma body vibrates on account
of the principle of resonance. Second, the vibrating soul attracts Karma
varganas from the surroundings. The Karma varganas are a
kind of subtle matter energy particles assumed to be present all over the
cosmos, perhaps in the form of waves. The Karma varganas are
agglomerates of Jaina atoms but are invisible to the eyes. An atom called
parmanu, according to jainas, is the smallest indivisible
indestructible, particle of matter. There is only one kind of parmanu
in the universe and all other material atoms and particles are aggregates
of infinitely large number of parmanus. For example, the atoms of
various elements known to science are aggregates of infinite number of
Jaina parmanus. The Jains believe that the parmanu has not
yet been discovered by science. We shall discuss about the nature of Karma
vargana later.
The Karma varganas bonding with the soul become
part of Karma body and are called Karma. This Karma is a group of specific
vargana that carries the impression of a particular action and
which form a part of the Karma body. How long, these Karma remain in the
Karma body? Each Karma has a life and after that it separates out from the
Karma body. The shedding of Karma from the Karma body is known as Karma
vipaka or nirjara. This will be discussed further in a later
section.
The shedding of Karma induces a particular bhava
or feeling in the soul. Alternatively an individual may induce some
feeling in one�s self by own effort and cause the shedding of Karma. The
feeling thus is the consequence of change in state of the soul. When the
soul changes from state 1 to state 2 feeling originates. Conversely, the
feeling can transform the soul from state 1 to state 2. This is the key
for the process of emancipation of the soul.
Now consider the case when nirjara of some Karma
is taking place. The state of the soul is changed and depending on the
type of Karma a particular feeling is developed which in turn gives rise
to some specific thoughts, and the person acts accordingly. The
accompanying passions induce vibrations in the soul causing inflow of
Karma varganas in the Karma body.
In this process two things happen simultaneously.
First, some Karma are shed from the Karma body and second some Karma
varganas are bound with the Karma body forming new Karma. Thus the
Karma vipak and Karma bondage form a cyclic process as shown in
fig. 1, in the same cycle there is influx and out flux of Karma. If the
influx is more than out flux there is a net gain of Karma. If the out flux
is more than influx a net loss of Karma takes place. Generally a person is
not careful in his actions and there is a net gain of Karma. Under such
circumstances a person is not able to reduce his Karma and the soul has to
bear the consequences in the form of continued cycle of rebirths and
suffer sorrow and misery in each birth.
A question may be asked that what is the way to reduce
or completely destroy the Karma? Briefly the following ways have been
suggested.
1. Observation. Observe the events as they occur
without allowing the feelings to rise. Put up with the pains and
pleasures, good and bad,
FIG.1. The Karma Cycle
favourable and adverse situations with neutral attitude
without reacting
to them. Do not allow the emotion to rise, just know
and observe the events as they happen. In the absence of feelings or
passions new Karma will not be formed.
2. Penance. By undertaking penance the emotion
are purified. This causes more out flux and less influx of Karma. Whatever
new Karma are formed are of good type which produce pleasure and not pain
on vipaka.
3. Meditation. Meditation is the best way of
nirjara. Using the right kind of mediation the Karmas can be
destroyed.
