Philosophy In Jain Agams: Rules for Karmic Fruition

The results of good and bad karmas are provided by natural rules. There is no need of any controlling supreme God for providing the results of karma. The soul itself is responsible for the bonding and experiencing the results of bound karmas. Hence, there is a natural system of yielding the results of karma. At the time of bondage of karmas, its duration and intensity of its results are determined. As the duration of bound karmas expires, karmas are agitated to yield results and they do so. With the rise of karmas, the soul experiences its results. Until the karmas do not come to the fruition state, the soul does not experience it. There exists infinite karmic atoms attached to the soul, but, not all are experienced simultaneously. Those karmas, which complete their probation period and come to the state of maturity or fruition, can only produce the experiences and not the others. This is the system of experiencing karmic results.

No Sharing in Karmic Results

The Jain tradition believes that the soul which has accumulated the karma through the good and bad deeds, experiences them. Karmas can never be shared with others. There is no transfer of auspicious or inauspicious karmas to others. One who binds the karma has to experience its results. This is a unanimously accepted Jain doctrine. Lord Mahavira has said 'The soul experiences self accumulated karmas.' One cannot experience the results of the karmas bound by others or by both self and others.^[1] Deluded by moha (attachment and aversion), a person involves in various sinful activities for the self, for family and for relatives, but while experiencing the sorrowful results of those karmas, no one comes forward and shares the results. Even if they wish to do so, they are unable. Uttarādhyayana expresses this fact very succinctly that family members, friends, children, kith or kins, none can share the results of one's karmas. One has to suffer miseries oneself, because the karmas follow only the doer.^[2] In the worldly life, a person performs many sinful deeds for others, but they ever come forward to share miserable conditions produced by one as karmas.^[3]

Jain tradition does not believe in Śrāda etc. It sharply rejects the belief that the food offered in Śrādha goes to the ancestors. However, it does accept that charity given to a well restraint monk begets the elimination of karmas (nirjarā) and in addition auspicious karmas are also bound to the soul. Here, it is not believed that the results of auspicious deeds done by the monk later would go to the donor.

Jain philosophy has a strong conviction that all good and bad situations, sorrow and joy, life and death, loss and gain - are the outcome of one's own karmas. Corresponding to the karmas one bound previously, the results will accrue accordingly, whether they are auspicious or inauspicious.

If the fruits of others karmas are possible to experience, then the karmas of the self stand meaningless. No one is empowered to force any soul to experience the results of the karmas acquired by the other person. Thus, only one can experience their own acquired karmas.^[4]

Sharing of Happiness is Unacceptable

At various places in Jain literature, it is found that no one can share your miseries. You have to suffer them on your own accord. But can we share our happiness and joy or not? Nothing has been found regarding this. Shall we derive from this that- miseries cannot be shared but the results of auspicious karma can be shared as the Buddhists believe that good karmas can be shared? The answer to this question is that may appear that the results we get from karmas, are all forms of misery only. Some karmas may be seen as good from a worldly point of view, but, spiritually all that we experience through the rise of karma is misery only. In the Bhagavatī sūtra, elimination of karma is called as pleasure (relief from suffering). je nijjiṇṇe se suhe.^[5] From the spiritual point of view, only the release of karma is considered as real sukha (pleasure), because when karmas are shunned off, soul becomes enlightened. For an enlightened person, everything (material things) is considered to be miserable.

dukkhameva sarvaṃ vivekinaḥ^[6]

There is a difference between worldly and spiritual point of view regarding the concept of pleasure. The sukha in the world is actually misery in the spiritual view and no one can share it. The actual meaning of this statement is that no one can share the results of karma, whether it is auspicious or inauspicious. Neither a being can take from others nor can he give the results of his karmas to others. The doer and experiencer of karma is the soul itself. Others cannot even share an iota.