Jainism For All

  Moksha or Liberation of Soul, the 9 th Navatattva The ninth or the final principle is Moksha or liberation. When the soul or atma is freed from all bondages to karma and has passed the ever beyond possibility of rebirth, it is said to have attained the state of complete deliverance or Moksha . In other words, the soul’s recovery of its own eternal self from the social bondages by the complete exhaustion or elimination of all different karma s is Moksha . When the soul is released from its karmic envelope, it realises its innate attributes of infinite knowledge, infinite perception, infinite power, infinite bliss and infinite light and ascending to the crest of the “ Loka ”, remains there forever. These free souls never return to the physical world again. They are truly free from the wheel of material existence made up of birth, decay and death. Ascent is the natural movement of the soul from bound state to free state, or from material world to Siddhaloka . Stripped off the...

  Nirjara, the 8 th Navatattva (Elimination of Karma ) The eighth cardinal principle is Nirjara . It means the shedding or removal of karma from the soul. Karma once attached to the soul becomes active when the time is ripe to bear fruit. But if one fails to throw out the karma just before it starts bearing fruit, it becomes much more difficult to eliminate the karma from the soul. Bearing fruit means new karma flowing in by the actions and reactions of the old karma . Therefore, it is necessary for those who aspire for liberation, to exhaust all karma on a regular basis by the prescribed means of meditation, contemplation etc. This process of elimination or exhaustion of karma is called Nirjara. Nirjara is of two types: Bhava nirjara , modification of soul which leads to separation of karmic matter from the soul, and, Dravya Nirjara , actual separation of karmic matter from the soul. Again, Bhava Nirjara is of two types: Savipaka and Avipaka Savipaka or akam nirja...