What is karma in Jainism?
Jain thinkers distinguish dravya karma from bhava karma. Dravya karma is the actual material particle that clings to the soul. Bhava karma is the soul's own inner state of passion, attachment or aversion that makes it sticky in the first place. The two sustain each other: passions attract matter, and the fruition of that matter provokes further passion.
Because karma is substance, its effects are mechanical rather than judicial. Nothing weighs the deed and issues a sentence. The particle simply matures at its appointed time and produces its result, exactly as a physical process would.
How is Jain karma different from Hindu and Buddhist karma?
This materialism gives Jain karma theory an unusually technical vocabulary. Texts describe how much matter is absorbed, how long it will remain attached, how strongly it will fruit, and which of its many sub-types it will express. Whole treatises are devoted to these calculations.
It also explains the severity of Jain ascetic practice. If karma is a physical accretion, then liberation requires physically removing it, which is achieved by austerity and restraint rather than by grace, devotion or divine forgiveness.
What are the eight types of karma in Jainism?
Jnanavaraniya veils the soul's omniscience, and darshanavaraniya veils its undifferentiated perception. Vedaniya produces the experience of pleasure and pain. Mohaniya distorts both belief and conduct and is regarded as the hardest to defeat. Ayushya fixes the duration of the present embodiment.
Nama karma shapes the body, senses, form and physical circumstances. Gotra karma determines the social standing into which one is born. Antaraya obstructs giving, gaining, enjoying and exercising one's energy, frustrating the soul even when opportunity is present.
What is the difference between ghati and aghati karma?
Destroying the four ghati karmas produces kevala jnana, omniscience, while the body still lives. Such a being is an arihant or kevali, fully enlightened yet still embodied because the aghati karmas retain their momentum.
The remaining aghati karmas exhaust themselves at the close of that final life. Only when they too are spent does the soul leave the body permanently and attain moksha.
What are asrava, bandha, samvara and nirjara?
The classic image is a boat at sea. Asrava is water leaking in through openings, bandha is the accumulated water weighing the boat down, samvara is sealing the leaks, and nirjara is bailing out what has already entered. Only when both are complete does the boat rise.
Nirjara is of two kinds. Karma that matures and falls away naturally at its appointed time yields no spiritual gain. Karma deliberately forced to ripen early through fasting, meditation and penance is the nirjara that actually advances the soul.
What role do kashaya (passions) play in karmic bondage?
Jain texts analyse bondage under four heads: prakriti, the type of karma; pradesha, the quantity of matter absorbed; sthiti, the duration of attachment; and anubhaga, the intensity of the eventual result. Type and quantity follow mainly from yoga, the soul's activity; duration and intensity follow from the kashayas.
This is why intention weighs so heavily in Jain ethics. Two people performing an identical outward act may bind radically different karma depending on the passion behind it, and an omniscient being acting without any passion binds effectively nothing.
Can karma be changed or destroyed once bound?
Karma literature describes several operations the soul can perform on its karmic stock, including increasing or decreasing duration and intensity and bringing karma to premature fruition. Ayushya karma, which fixes lifespan, is generally treated as the most resistant to such alteration.
The practical upshot is agency. The soul is bound by its past but never determined by it, and every moment offers the choice between binding further karma and shedding what is already bound.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- Tattvartha Sutra
- Karmagrantha
- Gommatasara (Karmakanda)
- Kashaya Pahuda
- Shatkhandagama