Practical Dharma

SR No.: 011122
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Indian Press
Publication Year: 1929
Total Pages: 123
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 8 MB

Page 51

SAMVARA
residing in the tiny globule of spirit and matter-the kārmāna sarīra.
We may now proceed to consider the nature of the causes of the seventh group of karmas, namely, gotra, which determines the circumstances of life. Obviously the status of the soul, whether high or low, depends on the status of the family in which it takes its birth; and the birth in a particular family is the consequence of its being drawn to a particular womb '--the word is here used in its widest sense including the upapāda, * the garbha,t and the sammurachhanat forms-by the mechanical action of its inherent force, the result of its own actions in a past life.
The type of actions which lead to a low status includes pride of birth, lineage, descent, beauty, or learning, the insulting of others for their low birth, and the like, also want of respect for the Deva (the holy Tirthamkara), Guru (spiritual teacher) and Šāstra (Scripture), and delighting in proclaiming the low status and circumstances of another. The opposite kinds of actions, such as self-abnegation, humility, worship of the true Deva, Guru and Sāstra, lead to birth in a high family and happy, prosperous surroundings.
We now come to the eighth and the last group of karmas, the antarāya. Its causes may be briefly said to consist in those actions of the soul which tend to interfere with the full development of the functions and faculties, as well as with the freedom of action of another. The following are fairly typical of this kind of actions : preventing another from making a gift, robbing others of their success in their enterprise, spoiling and marring the enjoyment of another, or depriving him of the opportunity for the full development of his natural powers and functions. The marrying of little children or of young girls to aged men, the misappropriation of charity-funds, neglecting to educate one's
* Upapāda is the method of birth of devas and residents of hells, who are born without conception and attain to adolescence at once.
+ Garbha means conception in consequence of sexual congress.
Sammurachhana is the form of birth in which the soul directly attracts particles of matter to itself to organise its body. It is found in those low fórms of life in the animal and vegetable kingdoms which are not born after the manner of garbha.
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