Philosophy In Jain Agams: Motion of Liberated Soul

When soul becomes free from all karmas, it gets liberated. In the condition of bondage of karma, the soul remains in the mundane state. Due to karmas, it keeps on moving into different realms of existence. When the soul gets freed from the karmas, then whether it moves or not is a question and if it moves, then how does it move? These are quite relevant queries. Bhagavatī mentions about the motion of the akarma (liberated) soul. A liberated soul moves up to the end of the universe.

Gautam asked Lord Mahavira, ‘Is there a motion in liberated beings?' The Lord replied in affirmation.^[1] Most of the Indian philosophies consider soul as all pervasive, so there is no question of movement in a liberated soul. According to the Jain philosophy, the soul is body pervasive.^[2] It gets liberated within the range of the abode of human. It moves upward towards the end of universe and stays over there forever.^[3] The liberated soul cannot go outside the cosmic space in the absence of a medium of motion there.

Four Reasons for the Motion of Liberated Beings

In the Bhagavatī, there are four causes mentioned for upward motion of a liberated soul, after it frees itself from karmic bondage -^[4]

1. Nissaṅgatā (the freedom of soul from besmearing or soiling by the karmic matter), Niranjanatā (immaculateness of the liberated soul) and Gati-pariṇamai (the innate nature of the soul for upward motion)- The soul becomes nissaṅga and nirañjana, when it gets free from the bonds of karmas. The upward flight of the soul freed of karmic bondage is compared to the gourd-fruit clean of the coating, which rises up to the surface of the water, similarly on being free from karma, the soul soars up to the top of the cosmos.
2. Bandhana-chedana (Severence of Karmic bondage) - the upward motion of the soul when freed from its karma is compared to the upward thrust of pods and caster seeds, when released from the pod.^[5]
3. Nirindhanatā (Absence of Fuel i.e. karma) - To explain this, the Bhagavati text uses the example of 'smoke'^[6]i.e. release of soul, just like smoke from burnt out fuel (karmic charcoal). The Tattvārtha Sūtra has not used this example. This is, however, comparable to 'TathāgatiPariṇāma'^[7] (the innate mode of the soul upward motion) of Tattvārtha, which has been illustrated, by a flame of fire.
4. Pūrva Prayoga (Antecedent Impetus) - Antecedent impetus i.e. previous force is the cause of the upward flight of a liberated soul. In spite of being freed from karma at present, due to previous force there is an upward motion of the liberated soul.
5. Acharya Umaswati has also discussed about the four causes of the upward motion of a liberated soul^[8] In place of 'nirīndhanatā' of Bhagavatī, 'tathāgatipariṇāma' is used in the Tattvārtha Sūtra, which has been discussed above. Even though, the upward motion of a liberated soul is quite natural, it also needs the assistance of a medium of motion (Dharmāstikāya) for the same. For this reason, a liberated soul stops at the uppermost boundary of the universe, due to the absence of the medium of motion in the trans-cosmic space and it does not move beyond to trans-cosmic space.

The complete description makes it clear that the karma theory in the Jain āgamas is very detailed and subtle. These discussions were taken further by the post āgamic literature like Karma Grantha of śvetāmbara tradition and Karaṇānuyoga in digambara tradition. The central focus of the Jain ethics is karma. It is quite natural to give such an importance to karma. In the next chapter, we would discuss the process of liberation from the bondage of karma.