Article: Karma

Parable of the tree
Image by British Library © CC0 1.0 (Creative Commons Public Domain)

One of the most significant and unique Jain beliefs, the notion of karma must be understood alongside another of the principal Jain concepts – that of the soul or self. In Jain cosmology karma is a very fine physical substance that becomes firmly attached to the soul – jīva. The various karmas permeate or ‘bind to’ the soul. Karmic contact with the soul can be divided into six stages. The different karmas corrode the soul or shape the physical body in which the soul is embodied and its circumstances. The soul’s spiritual development is affected by its karma, which can be evaluated by its colour. The pure soul is colourless, but when it is pervaded with karma it is coloured or stained. This leśyā can be used to assess its spiritual level.

In Jain thought the soul or self is a type of sentient, non-material matter – dravya – unlike other substances in the universe. Jains believe that karma is pudgala, which is an insentient, physical substance. The question of how a physical substance can attach to a non-material thing is not explained in Jain writings.

The table presents the stages of karma’s relationship with the soul.

Karma can be bound to the soul for a long time before it ripens, even lasting several lifetimes. Once it has come to fruition, karmic effects last for a certain time period. Following this, the karma falls away from the soul of its own accord.

In Jain belief karma obscures or covers the four essential qualities of the soul – guṇas – hampering their realisation. These innate attributes of perception, knowledge, energy and bliss each has a particular karma that affects it. These ‘destructive’ karmas – ghātiyā-karmas – are all negative because they cloud a particular soul quality and make it extremely difficult to make spiritual progress.

The karma stuck to the soul produces a karmic body – kārmaṇa-śarīra – that remains with the soul throughout its experiences in the cycle of births. The various karmas have fixed powers, dormancy and duration, and may mature many lifetimes after they were generated.

Four types of existence
Image by Diwakar Prakashan / Padma Prakashan © Diwakar Prakashan / Padma Prakashan

The concept of the cycle of birth – saṃsāra – helps to explain the importance of karma in Jain doctrine. The various karmas created in one birth or lifetime influence different elements of the soul’s later embodiments. They may affect the soul itself or the body it has during that lifetime and in future births. As they are created by activities carried out during embodiment, karmas can therefore be understood as both cause and effect of the soul’s entrapment within the cycle of births.

In Jain belief the soul is embodied because it is bound with karmas and is impure. When the body dies, the soul is reborn into another body, according to the karmas it has produced. A soul is reborn many many times, over aeons, and cannot stop this repeating process of rebirth, which is the cycle of birth. Only a soul that has no karmas can be liberated from flesh, and can then realise its own perfection, which is called liberation – mokṣa. Over its numerous lifetimes in the cycle of birth the soul can make spiritual progress towards enlightenment, which is the step before liberation. However, it is an extremely long and difficult journey, with many pitfalls and setbacks.

The non-destructive – aghātiyā – karmas affect the physical body, its attributes, lifespan and general experiences. The destructive – ghātiyā – karmas alter the soul by hiding or hindering its essential qualities.

Broadly speaking, the bad activities generate negative karmas – pāpa-prakṛtis – while good activities produce positive karmas – puṇya-prakṛtis. ‘Bad’ behaviour goes against Jain doctrine, while ‘good’ conduct follows Jain principles.

Negative karmas, which include destructive karmas, lead to birth as spiritually devoid beings. These range from infernal creatures, animals and beings that lack the capacity for reason, such as less intelligent animals, plants or nigodas. Once embodied in such conditions, the soul finds it difficult to make spiritual progress and accrue positive karmas.

Positive karmas effect birth as an intelligent animal, god or human being. Although deities may have superhuman powers and have enjoyable lives free of care in the heavens, they are still souls caught in the cycle of rebirth. As beings with high intelligence and insight, they can develop spiritually quite far but cannot be liberated. Jains believe that only souls embodied in human beings are capable of reaching emancipation. Being human is therefore considered a rare and fortunate birth and is why human beings should do their best to work towards liberation, even if not all souls can achieve it within their first human incarnation.

Mr̥gāputra becomes a monk
Image by British Library © CC0 1.0 (Creative Commons Public Domain)

Preventing karmas entering the soul is called saṃvara. Attachment to the world generates passions and emotions, provoking all kinds of activities, which cause the various kinds of karma. Therefore avoiding activity and maintaining absolute calmness at all times allows a soul to achieve saṃvara. Such calm can be attained only with total detachment from worldly affairs, which is extremely difficult to achieve.

In practice, Jains believe that such detachment requires renouncing the world to become a monk or nun. Jains who do not become mendicants can practise lesser degrees of detachment, such as limiting their possessions and trying not to become attached to them, meditating and remaining calm. Being able to reach saṃvara is a sign of advanced spiritual development.

Completing a fast
Image by Chandu Shah © Chandu Shah

Jains can eliminate karmas in the soul by progressing spiritually. Karma can be destroyed by asceticism or austerities – frequently termed tapas – which eradicates the karma stuck to the soul. There are 12 sorts of austerities each for lay Jains and for mendicants. Since many austerities revolve around food practices, especially restrictions on food such as fasting, this indicates the importance of food in Jainism. Asceticism must be performed with the right religious attitude, which helps foster self-control and self-awareness. These qualities cultivate detachment, thereby connecting the two ways of stopping karma.

Religious austerities create bodily heat – properly called tapas – that burns away the karma permeating the soul. Ascetic practices may be either:

• external or physical
• internal or mental.

The texts detailing the conduct of ideal lay Jains – śrāvakācāras – describe recommended sorts of austerities. Similar writings on mendicant behaviour, such as the Uttarādhyayana-sūtra for Śvetāmbara orders, supply lists of austerities for monks and nuns.

Recommended ascetic practices for lay and mendicant Jains are summarised in the following tables.

Most of these austerities relate to food, especially the practice of fasting. These highlight the importance of food and fasting in both Jain doctrine and practice. Although there are numerous types of fast or limited eating, the most common kind of fasting among contemporary Jains is probably taking a vow to practise partial fasting or limited eating during festivals.

All austerities must be performed with the correct attitude of calm deliberation. Austerities that people undertake for wrong reasons, such as hoping to gain admiration from others, instead generate negative karmas.

All ascetic practices emphasise self-control and self-awareness, which aid the development of detachment. The two methods of karma removal are thus inter-related. Studying the scriptures and putting religious principles into practice are central to spiritual development in the Jain faith. Practical and conceptual frameworks such as the three gems and guṇa-sthāna help followers of the Jinas to both deepen their knowledge of Jain principles and practise them.

Buddha-SD-Mus Art-Daderot
Image by Daderot © public domain

Along with other religions that originated in India, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, Jains believe that souls:

• are trapped in the neverending cycle of rebirth – saṃsāra
• are reborn in different bodies according to the karma they have collected
• can only break out of the cycle of rebirth by being born a human being, achieving enlightenment and then, leaving the body behind, reaching liberation
• with karma attached to them can never be enlightened – the bondage of karma.

The Jain concepts of the soul and karma differ from those of the other Indian faiths, however. In Jainism souls are individual with the same innate qualities. They accrue karmas that are bound to them throughout the cycle of birth until they mature and fall away. Karma is a highly refined theory in the Jain religion, with 148 detailed classes of karma. Souls remain individual once they are perfected.

Followers of the Buddha do not believe in a soul in the same way as Jains and Hindus. The Buddha preached anatta – the doctrine of no soul – and that the cycle of birth involves a transfer of consciousness from one body to another, influenced by karma. Nirvāṇa is the term usually used for liberation or salvation – in which followers of the Buddha realise that there is neither self nor consciousness. It describes the extinguishing of the ‘fires’ of attachment, aversion and ignorance that cause suffering. Enlightened souls thus gain release from the cycle of births when they die – mokṣa – instead of another rebirth.

There is a variety of belief among Hindu traditions, although most Hindus believe in the soul or self – ātman – and liberation. Broadly, for Hindus ignorance of the true self or soul creates desire for and enjoyment of the world, which traps the soul in the cycle of birth. Karma comes from thoughts, words and deeds, and influences future lives. Between two births, the soul goes either to hell, to be punished for bad actions, or to heaven, where it enjoys rewards for good actions. Hindu mokṣa is the perfecting of the soul and release from the cycle of rebirths, although various schools differ on whether realisation of the soul can be achieved during or after life.