cloth represents our jīva or ātmā (soul), the oil represents our passions, transgressions and activities (Kaṣāya, Pramāda, Avrata, Yoga) by which karma is acquired, and the dust represents pudgaḷa. They say also that karma represents a book of which pudgaḷa are the leaves.
The four kinds of Bondage.However difficult this is to understand, their teaching about the actual bondage is quite clear. They classify it in four ways: according to its nature, its duration, its intensity, and its mass.
Man creates his own karma according to his own character (Prakṛiti): if we are by nature bitter and sharp, we shall have to endure bitter karma; if, on the other hand, we are sweet and pleasant, though we may accumulate karma, yet it will be sweet and pleasant.
Karma can also be classified according to the time it takes to expiate (Sthiti): some will take a thousand years, some only a decade, and some can be worked out in a day.
The intensity of karma (Anubhāga) also differs: it is much heavier at some times than at others; for instance, if two boys are playing ball and one hits a cow and repents, but the other when he hits the cow is rather proud of so good a shot, then the first boy will have far less heavy karma to expiate than the second.
Some karma has attracted more pudgaḷa, some less; so the Jaina also divide karma according to its thickness and thinness (Pradeśa).
To illustrate these four classifications the Jaina take a lāḍu[1] as an example. Some lāḍus, they say, are such as to cure coughs and rheumatism (!), and this shows their nature; others can be distinguished according to the time they keep good; others by whether they have melted butter in them or not; and others are thick or thin according to the amount of flour with which they have been made. We shall have to study karma more in detail later on, when bondage to it will be further considered.
- ↑ A lāḍu is a large round sweetmeat, about the size of a tennis ball, made of wheat, sugar, ghī and spices, of which the Gujarātī is inordinately fond.
