Mahavira's Scripture Of Health: [06.05] Doctrine Of Karma And Health - Disease And Karma

Disease and karma are related to ethics. How do we get bondage the asat vedaniya karma and sat vedaniya karma? This subject has been discussed in many Agamas. The causes of the bondage resulting from sat vedaniya karma are as follows:

1. Compassion for prana, bhuta (any animate or inanimate object of creation) jeeva and attva (beings or living entities)
2. Not causing unhappiness to prana, bhuta, jeeva and sattva
3. Not forcing anyone to be meek
4. Not causing grief that would deplete the strength of the body
5. Not causing grief that would bring tears
6. Not striking with the lathi, etc.
7. Not causing physical afflictio

Beginning of the practice of the sat vedaniya karma through the body.
The causes of the bondage resulting from the asat vedaniya karma are having no compassion for the prana, the bhuta, the jeeva and the sattva, making them unhappy causing the grief leading to the depletion of the strength of the body, causing grief that would bring tears, striking with the lathi, etc., causing physical affliction and the beginning of the practice of the asat vedaniya karma through the body.

This makes a chain - the disease, the bondage of the asat vedaniya karma and the situation of the fruition of the asat vedaniya karma. Diagnosing any disease only by examining the patient, treating those diseases by administering medicines, taking measures to control the disease; these are all gross things that are being done. If this happens, the fruition of the asat vedaniya karma is not very effective and the disease is cured. This happens only when the bondage of karma is weak. If the bondage of the asat vedaniya karma is strong, the diseases cannot be brought under control in spite of administering thousands of medicines. Today, the doctors, the vaidyas and the patients themselves acknowledge that there is no freedom from the disease in spite of taking the medicines for years together. This is the condition of the disease resulting from the karma. When some ghastly act is performed, when some cruelty is shown to someone, the atoms of matter of the resultant asat vedaniya karma become so powerful that the disease become incurable. In spite of the treatment, the atoms of matter have so much influence that the patient becomes irrelevant and powerless. He renders every treatment of his disease ineffective.