Part 4 - Doctrine of karma

Yoga and Jainism, both the philosophies agree to the fact that man, and only he is responsible for all that is good or bad in his life. Actions, thought and speech along with passions result in karmas. For attainment of liberation, Jainism suggests that one must remove karmas or bear their consequences at maturity without inviting new karmas. Satta-karma and Uday-karma of Jainism is similar to Sancita-karma and Prabdha-karma of Yogic scriptures. Current generation of karma in Jainism is bandha.

Sage Patanjali has given relevance of karma principle in five of his sutras no. 1.24, 2.12, 3.22, 4.07 and 4.30.

According to yogasutra 2.12, 2.13 and 2.14, past life karmas are the root cause of miseries and klesas. So, one has to try to consume them in current and future lives. Patanjali muni has used term “karmasaya” as storage house of karma that we pos-sess. These karmas result into new birth, having different class, life-span and expe-riences. Those lead to fruits of pleasure and pain according to our actions full of vir-tues and vices. According to sutra 3.22, if we perform Samyama on presently active as well as dormant karma or on the portents, the knowledge of death is obtained.

As compared to Papa and Punya (wholesome and unwholesome) karmas of Jainism, Patanjali in his sutra 4.07 refers to asukla (unwholesome), akrsnam (not sinful or wholesome) and mixed, threefold karma which are accumulated by a commonman. In case of the Yogi, the karma is neither pure nor impure, because his citta is purified. When the aspirant attains Dharmamegha Samadhi, he gets complete freedom from actions and karma i.e. “kleśakarmanivṛtti’ (Patanjali Yoga Sutra 4.30).

Thus in the final stage of spirituality, one gets total freedom from accumulation and influence of karma according to both the philosophies.

Klesas v/s Karma:

According to Jainism, the right faith acts as a basis or guideline regarding our life goal. The person who gains pure knowledge with genuiene faith through samyak darsana succeeds in this life inspite of all sufferings which are part of our life. Most of us can”t create a state to remove faults through which we build up karma or we can”t destroy all karma. In all such cases, we should make consistent and serious efforts to allow us to build Punyanubandhi (wholesome) karma initially, as comparatively it is easier to enjoy or burn them. Patanjali’s path of Yoga talks of the similar sequence of practices to become aware of avidya and destroy all klesas through the science of knowing ourselves and technique of inner yoga. We can conclude that “karma-pudgals’ of Jainism and “klesas” of Patanjali are the main obstacles on our spiritual path. Both of them are almost similar, comparable and can be annihilated with different techniques suggested to handle and remove them.