________________
Conclusion
131
In the philosophy of Sāmkhyayoga school, the law of Karma is assumed as a valid principle of life. They hold that our life, its character and everything are determined by it. They argue that though we do not remember our past lives, we can infer particulars about them from the tendencies of the present. These tendencies, according to them, will cease to exist on the disappearance of their cause (hetu), motive (phala), substratum (āsraya), and object (ālambana). The root cause is avidyā, though we may have other proximate causes. The motive refers to the purpose with reference to which any conation becomes operative in the present. Chitta is the substratum of the residual potencies, and the object is that which excites the potencies. Sāṁkhya's theory of satkāryavāda also points out the admissibility of the Law of Karma. According to it, the effect subsists in latent form in the cause. They argue for the same reason that the non-existent cannot be made existent. In the same way, our present is an outcome of our past lives and on the same logic, the future will be the result of our present lives.
Mimārısā thinkers attempt to prove the Law of Karma with the help of its doctrine of Apūrva. They say that our acts are enjoyed with a view to their fruits. There is a necessary connection between the act and its result. An act performed today is not bound to produce its results the same day. It may produce its results in the future also. But an act performed today cannot produce its result at some future date unless it produces before exhausting itself to some unseen force. Jaimini terms such unseen force, as Apūrva, i.e., something new, not known before. So, Apūrva is the metaphysical link between work and its result. According to them, man enjoys the fruits of his actions performed in the past life, here in the present by means of Apūrva. In the same way, he will have to enjoy the fruits of actions performed in the present life, with the help of same Apūrva. This is the substance of the Law of Karma.
For sankara individuality is due to Karma, which is a product of avidyā. The world, we live in, is just the return of the works of doer. The individual is a working machinery intended to produce its effects in the form of suffering and
