Dr. N.L. Kachhara
A living being is always engaged in some kind of activity, which may be undertaken by the body, speech, mind or some combination of the three. These actions and their accompanying passions induce vibrations in the soul (bhava karma). The nature of this vibration depends on the type of action, and the magnitude of the vibration depends on the degree of passion. Two things happen due to vibrations in the soul. First, the karma body vibrates because of the principle of parallelism between the bhava karma and the karma body. Second, the vibrating karma body attracts karma varganas from its surroundings. Karma varganas are a kind of subtle energy assumed to be present throughout the cosmos. The incoming karma varganas bond with the existing karma and become part of the karma body. This karma carries the impression of and information about the source action. How long does this karma remain in the karma body? The karma is bonded for certain duration and is shed from the karma body on maturity. The shedding of karma from the karma body is known as karma vipaka or nirjara.
The process of bonding takes place in the soul and karma body simultaneously. The bonding of new karma means a change in the state of both the soul and the karma body. Do the changes in the two-take place concomitantly, or is a change in one immediately followed by a change in the other to maintain the balance? Perhaps the second possibility is true, as shown below.
Passion is the binding force of bhava karma, and so also between the incoming varganas and the existing karma. If passion were absent or not operative, the incoming varganas would not bond, but would exit back to the cosmos without interacting with the karma. The important point is that passions are responsible for karma bonding: the higher the passion, the more karma is bound. Where do the karmas bind in the karma body? Karma binds uniformly to all of the karma pradesas. Jain philosophy posits that the soul has innumerable pradesas, tiny parts of space: each part is supposed to be like the point of a needle. Truly speaking, the soul is indivisible, but for the purpose of theoretical explanation, it is assumed to contain innumerable points of space. The karma body is also assumed to be divided into the same number of points as the soul. Bonding takes place uniformly so that at any instant each part of the karma body contains the same amount of karma. The number of bonding karma varganas is directly proportional to the intensity of the action and passions, but in any case, an infinite number of varganas is supposed to bond with the karma body at any one time.
