Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/212

 The Arrangement of the Eight Karma.

The Jaina have a special reason for the way they arrange the eight karma : they say that the first thing necessary is knowledge {jndna) ; without this we cannot behold the true faith {darsana) ; if we possess both knowledge and faith, we are indifferent to pain or pleasure [vedaniya) ; mohanlya follows, because through pleasure or fear of pain we may become entangled in worldly attachments ; that is the chief cause which determines the length of each imprisonment {dyu) ; when this has been determined, there still remains to be decided the state in which we shall be imprisoned {ndma) ; on that again depends the caste and family [gotra) ; and a man's caste and family are after all either his greatest help or his greatest hindrance {antardya).

Ghdtin and Aghdtin Karma.

The eight karma are also classified into the Ghdtin karma, which can only be destroyed with great labour, and which include Jfianavaraijlya, Darsanavaraniya, Mohaniya and Antaraya karma: and the Aghdtin karma, namely Vedaniya, Ayu, Nama and Gotra karma, which, important as their results are, can yet be more easily destroyed. The Jaina say that if the Ghatin are once burnt up in the burning glow of austerities (tapa), the Aghatin can be snapped as easily as a piece of burnt string.^1

Three Tenses of Karma.

The Jaina also divide karma according to the period when it was acquired, is being experienced, or will be experi- enced. The karma which we accumulated in past lives they call Sattd ; that which we are even now in this present life sowing, and of which we shall reap the harvest in a future

^ Here again will be noticed a difference from the interpretation of Govindananda (who thinks four karma ' are of use to enable one to know the truth; therefore they are Aghatins, i.e. not injurious, favourable'); and from Dr. Bhandarkar, who considers the Ghatin Karman to mean ' the disabling Karmans '. Loc. cit., pp. 97 n. and 93.