The role of cause and effect in the physical
world corresponds to the role of Karma in Jaina ethics. Every person is
deemed responsible for bearing the fruit of his own deeds. It is also the
rule of nature in practical life that the quality of the seed determines
that of the fruit. Jaina philosophy theorizes that one achieves happiness
by doing good deeds, and sorrow by doing evil deeds, hence the need to
perform noble works that are at all times well intentioned. The self is
free and fully competent to act as such. The self is the real cause of
sorrow and joy. It is clearly pointed out in Uttaradhyayana-Sutra, �My
own self is the doer and undoer of misery and happiness; my own self is
friend and foe, as I act well or badly.�
Jaina philosophy has described the details
of the process of the bondage of Karma and its view must be distinguished
from other formulations of the same. The principle, �As a man gives, so
he receives,� is present in many philosophies. Often such types of Karma
theories are fatalistic because the past is seen as determining the
present. In this way the Karmic explanation of one�s deeds delivers the
doer from the bondage of some superintending divinity, but it only
exchanges bondage to the supernatural for bondage to the unrelenting grasp
of Karma. This tells us why there have been so many popular views on the
cause of happiness and sorrow in Indian philosophies. Time, Fate, Nature,
Chance, Maiter, Purusa, and combinations of all these, have been taken as
the cause of joy and sorrow. In all these the individual is stripped of
his capacities to free himself from the force that holds him captive.
Jaina philosophy differ from such fatalistic
renderings of Karma. According to Jain ethics, man can increase or reduce
the period of his Karmas by his own effort and can reduce or increase
their power of bearing fruit. It has been called Udirana: the energy
that makes possible the premature fruition of Karmas. Similarly, a person
can convert his Punyas (virtues) into sins because of his evil deeds (asat
Karmas) and he can convert his sins into Punyas (virtues) because of his
virtuous activities (sat Karmas). Udirana is called the energy that
contributes to differentiation of Karmas (samkramana).
The conversion is possible in a positive
sense, through right knowledge and self-control. The process is called
Upasaynana. It is described in the Karma-Siddhant of Jainism. It saves a
person from becoming a fatalist and imparts confidence to change the
direction of one�s life through actions (Sadacarana). Thus the role of
self awakening and human effort within the framework of the doctrine of
Karma invests Jaina ethics with originality. Its optimistic attitude
toward the success of human efforts to cancel the effects of previous
actions and to block the inflow of fresh Karmic matter makes ethics a
force for good.
