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Karma
just means actions, or deeds. When we talk about the 'law of karma'
all we mean is that a person's physical and mental make-up and
fortune in life can be traced back to the effects of his or her
previous actions, in this, or an earlier, life. It is common sense
really. If I eat too much I shall get fat (the effect of my
actions). If I control my appetite then I shall not. If I do not
control my desire for possessions then Ishall get greedy and
unpleasant. If I do not control my attitudes to other living
creatures then I shall get violent and unpleasant. All these things
add up: all my actions and thoughts help to make the sort of person
I am. And they obviously have their effects on my position in life.
It is true that in the short term violent or greedy or dishonest
people often appear to succeed in life, to reach high
positions, acquire wealth and live in comfort, even though they are
feared or disliked by pleasanter, more honest people.
But Jains look at the long term. They see that violence and
greed and dishonesty build up conditions with in the individual
which are certain to have their effect eventually.
Every action, whether it is physical or mental, has its
effect. The person who commits continual violence will find himself
(or herself) becoming more and more bound up in the ways of
violence, with a personality becoming more and more twisted and
unpleasant. It may take two or three lifetimes, even more, for the
effects really to show. But one can not escape them. Of course good
actions, kindness and non-violence and lack of greed equally have
their (very different) effects on the individual's life and
personality.
Not only outward actions count but also inward thoughts. A
person who is subject to inward passions may perhaps be prevented by
force of circumstances from giving
outward expression
to them. There is obviously no virtue in refraining from violence or
acquisitiveness because you are prevented by circumstances you
cannot control. Suppose that you want to injure a person and you
attack an inanimate dummy, fully believing that it is that person.
You may not be guilty by law, but morally you are as guilty as if
you had not been mistaken. Of course, if you have violent or greedy
thoughts and consciously manage to control them, you are less blame
worthy. That is why, a few lines back, we said that every action,
whether it is physical or mental, has its effect. Our condition in
life is the result of the things we do and the things we think, of
our actions and our attitudes.
Jainism
is particularly concerned with ethics, with matters of right and
wrong, with morality in its widest sense. This will be apparent to
the
reader of this small book. At this point let us remember that
to the Jain the great ethical principles are five in number. Most
important is non-violence, towards all living creatures. The other
four are truthfulness, sexual restraint, not taking the property of
others, and not seeking to accumulate excessive possessions.
Now the effects of karma appear over many lifetimes of any
individual. We know that some people argue that when the death of a
physical body occurs, that is the end of the individual. Frankly
this does not seem very probable: is it likely that all the thoughts
and feelings, the ideas and ideals, the love (and hate), that make
up me, or you, suddenly stop when the body dies? Jains believe, as
indeed do most Indian (and Western) religious thinkers, that the
physical body is only a container for something much more important,
for the real individual inside it. This real individual (Jains call
is jiva, sometimes translated as 'soul' or 'self') leaves the
body at death and finds another body, another container, in which it
lives out another life. Naturally the jiva, which is the real
personality of the individual, is still bound by the effects of its
previous behavior, its karma. The condition of the jiva, as affected
by its previous karma, will determine what sort of new life it will
enter into. The effects of a violent and greedy life may be many
lifetimes of misery before the individual has worked all the bad
effects out of the system. Equally the individual whose personality
has been shaped by good and loving behavior in past lives may now be
leading a good and pleasant life.
It is very important to remember that every living thing, not
only human beings, is basically a jiva. In the universe are
countless myriads of jiva, whether contained in the simplest
single-celled living creature or in complex beings with many senses
and high intelligence like humans.
From creatures so tiny that we can not see them, to plants,
birds and animals, all are jiva. And there are beings also, beyond
our normal understanding, living their lives, according to their
karma, in the heavens and hells. In our previous lives we, you and
I, have passed through many different forms, and in the countless
lives to come we shall pass through many more. (This is, of course,
the reason why Jains place such strong emphasis on ahimsa or
non-violence: all living things are jiva, they are all important,
even the smallest and apparently most insignificant, and the true
Jain will try his hardest to avoid harm to any.)
Jain scholars from earliest times right up to the present
have devoted much thought to elucidating and expanding the
explanations of the karma processes as they are given in the ancient
Jain scriptures. This is not easy to put into simple terms. As we
said earlier, the word karma basically means actions. But Indian
thinkers use the word karma for the process, or link, by which the
actions of an individual have their effect on the soul. In most
Indian schools of thought karma is seen as some sort of immaterial
force or power, generated by the individual's actions and feelings,
which then produces the effects of those actions on the soul.
Jainism has made a unique contribution to the study of karma. Karma is described not as an immaterial force but as tiny
material particles. This fits in with the Jain view of the universe
as having an actual material existence which is not just an illusion
(as for example the Buddhists hold) when its deepest nature is fully
understood. (Modern scientists will be on familiar ground here.)
These particles permeate the entire universe and some of them flow
into the soul of the individual, a process known as asrava,
or simply 'inflow'. In the ordinary way of things the individual
soul or jiva is subject to feelings
of desire or hatred, and these make it receptive to the karma
particles which, as it were, stick there or are bound to the soul (bandha
or 'binding'). It might
be helpful to think of the karma particle, in modern medical terms,
as something like a virus. In certain conditions of the body the
virus can move in and stick there, causing changes in the body which
lead to illness.
Similarly, in certain condition of the soul (jiva),
that is when the individual has passions of desire or hate, the
karma particles can move in and cause a deterioration in the
condition of the soul. The perfect functioning is impeded and the
individual becomes ignorant, confused, changed.
Indeed, just as the virus can have such effects on the body
that a person's whole life is changed, perhaps from an active and
busy life to one bedridden and helpless, so will karma affect the
soul that its whole existence in one life, or a series of lives, is
affected. Jain thinkers
have developed the theory of karma and have described the many
types. To go into details is beyond the scope of this present small
book.
Briefly, the types of karma fall into two divisions. The
first division determines our future lives. One type of karma
determines how long our life will be and whether in human, animal or
other form; another determines our bodily state and destiny; another
our status and circumstances; the fourth type, of this division,
determines the joy, sorrow, pleasure, pain of life. It is believed
that these types of karma have to work out their effects: there is
nothing we can do to avert their consequences. The karma of the
second division, however, may be cleared from the soul by austerity
and spiritual discipline. Again there are four types, the effect of
each is to obstruct or obscure one of the qualities of the soul, its
intuition, its knowledge, its energy or its bliss.
To sum up so far, we are what we are now, in this life,
because of the effects of karma. It was our own thoughts and actions
in the past (in this life and in previous ones), our hates and
desires, which created the conditions in our soul which allowed the
karma particles to adhere and to impede the functioning of our soul.
We are now what we, by
our past actions, have made ourselves. This is fundamentally
important: we can not put the blame for our present behavior or our
position in life on some remote god or blind fate or luck. In the
words of an English poet, I am the master of fate, I am the captain
of my soul.
Now the key to all this is passion. It is our feelings, our
hatred for people who upset us, for other creatures which annoy us,
and our desires for possessions, for prestige, for comfort, for sex,
for enjoyment, which create the conditions in our jiva, or soul,
which allow the karma particles to stick there. Get rid of these
feelings of hate and desire: the karma particles will drop away and
the inflow of karma will be stopped.
However this is not easy, indeed it is very very difficult
indeed. As far back as we can go in the eternity of time each jiva
has had some imperfections in it and these have allowed the passions
to creep in, desire and hate. And these have allowed the karma
particles to keep coming in.
And
so the jiva has moved on to another rebirth, perhaps better, perhaps
worse than the last. And another and another and another... We are
tied to this almost endless chain of death and rebirth, death again
and rebirth. How can we
break this chain? Only by eliminating the accumulated karma in our
soul and stopping any more from adhering to it. The process has two
stages. First, the inflow of karma particles must be stopped (samvara,
'cessation'). Second, the accumulated karma particles must be shed (nirjara,
'shedding'). In the normal course of events the karma
particles will in due course produce their effects and drop off but
by moral and spiritual practices this process may be hastened so
that the soul becomes free from the accumulated karma.
The key, of course, is to get rid of all passion. Let
us look at this a bit more closely. The basic passions are hate and
desire, or we can subdivide them into anger and pride, deceit and
greed. No body is free from these and, unless checked, they build up
in the individual, leading him or her to more and more destructive
thoughts and behavior. It can be very hard to get
rid of these unpleasant passions, it will take a very long
time and hard spiritual effort. Even when the individual has
controlled them it is possible to slip back. The path is still
difficult and the individual must be prepared to avoid the most
harmful activities, killing, accumulating wealth, theft and so on.
These every Jain man and woman must avoid.
But there is another, more rigorous stage, possible only for
the monk or nun who has given unworldly possessions and ambitions.
Even monks may find that they are unable to control their passions
so completely as to avoid all harmful acts. Even if they do, they
can still lack the drive and sense of purpose which takes them to
the final renunciation of passion. But let us pause here for a
moment. What is the object of all this?
Why try to get rid of passions and hence of karma? Why try to
break the chain of death and rebirth? Sometimes we are unhappy,
true, but sometimes we are happy. Is it really worth the effort?
This is a common point of view: many individuals have never got
round to thinking of this seriously (indeed, Jains believe, there
are some jiva which never will), or even to considering it. Indeed
in all the worlds it is only human beings who have the real
understanding fully to pursue the goal. But is it worth it?
The jiva has many qualities, of which knowledge and bliss are
very important. We, you and I, have knowledge, we know many
things, we can look at the world al around us, or indeed at
religious doctrine, and understand
some of it. We also feel, do we not, occasionally an
underlying sense of bliss, of happiness, of tranquility? Sometimes
we feel this strongly for a short time, but often, indeed most of
the time, it is hidden, just as most of the facts of the world, of
the universe, of religion, are hidden from us. Now the jiva really
and basically has the ability to comprehend, to know,all knowledge,
and equally it has the potential of complete and unlimited bliss and
tranquillity. It is important to appreciate the basic underlying
nature of the jiva or soul or essential individual self. In its
purest state every individual has the capacity of omniscience, of
perception and knowledge of everything in the universe.
Total knowledge (the Jains call it kevalajnana) is a
difficult concept to comprehend. We meet people whom we admire for
their vast range of knowledge, but even these know only a fraction,
a tiny fraction, of the things which can be known. Human knowledge
is very limited, very imperfect. Kevalajnana, total knowledge,
perfect knowledge, is something quite different, limitless in scope,
not restricted by space or time, a complete and simultaneous
understanding of the whole universe. Deep down within every individual self there is this faculty
of universal comprehension.
The
other main characteristic of the pure and essential jiva is total
bliss or tranquility. This, again, is a state which is not easy to
understand. Happiness,
contentment, tranquility, are fleeting in this world. Even the most
placid person is beset often by the worries and cares of human life.
The mind never ceases acting, external thoughts disturb the
rare moments of calm which we can enjoy. In its deepest being, calm
and tranquility are the natural condition of the jiva, but only
in the pure and perfect state can the individual jiva return to
this.
What then is it which is clouding over the light of
boundless knowledge, which is disturbing and troubling the pure
bliss of the perfect individual? The particles of karma prevent the jiva from realizing its
full potential and tie it to the cycle of birth and death. We can
only dimly imagine the state when karma has been totally eliminated
from our soul and we are free, completely free, with boundless
knowledge and utter tranquility. This is the state called moksha
and this is the goal of all spiritual endeavor. When the individual
has become completely freed from all karma, and has achieved
boundless knowledge, but still remains in this world, then that
individual is known as an arhat. Finally the arhat passes
from this world and as a siddha enters the ultimate state of moksa.
We have looked at the ideas of karma and jiva. We must first
understand these and then we can investigate what we must do in life
to follow the path which is thus pointed out to us. Jainism has a
programme of spiritual development for everyone. It is not easy nor
is it short, it is very hard and very lengthy. But this is discussed
later in the book. To sum up, the whole aim of Jain philosophy is to
purify the soul so that one has permanent bliss and happiness. The
whole Jain way of life is directed to this ultimate goal.
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