Here is my work up on one of the most puzzling and intriguing parts of Jainism: The relationship of Karma to the Soul.

1. Explain the purification of soul through 14 stages of spiritual progression and how soul is separated from Mohaniya Karma (Darshan Mohaniya and Charitrya Mohaniya) and the remaining seven Karmas.

The “spiritual progression” is a means of achieving freedom from the bondage to karma. The “purification of soul” is a means of shedding, or releasing, the karma bonds. The transmigrating Soul faces nine function-specific types of karmas which are further sub-grouped on the basis of the impacts they bear on the conditions experienced by the Soul during this journey. As long as the Soul is impure, it will go through the cycle of birth and death (the cycle of transmigration - samsära). The impurities are called karma. There is a continuous interaction between Soul and karma.

While journey and river metaphors are also used, the Jainas provide a “detailed picture of a ladder”—the gunasthana, a ladder with fourteen rungs. This ladder metaphor illustrates the climb the Soul must take “from the depths of delusion and entrapment to the pinnacle of omniscience and freedom”. Each rung is like a stage with a limited view-point. This is a process, it is progressive, with moments in which the Soul dwells, until moving on.

The lowest state, the bottom rung and lowest gunasthana, is Mithyadrsti where the soul is burdened by “wrong views” and distortions – mithya-darsana. The presence of karmic hindrances prevent the Soul from realizing the true qualities of atma, the abiding eternal being. The burdensome karmas must be shed, released, destroyed, or otherwise “separated”, so that the Soul is able to move up the ladder. Broadly, the ghatiya karmas are those which have a direct negative effect on the Soul, keeping it in bondage.

Mohaniya karma is “bad” karma that defiles the bliss-quality of the Soul, bliss being one of its pleasant and inherent attributes. This ghatiya karma obstructs two pillars of Jain doctrine, the true faith and right conduct. In Professor Parekh’s description, “It keeps us deeply involved in the worldly affairs. This karma is called the king of all karmas”, apparently not in a good way.
The Jains speak of two main groups of Mohaniya karmas:

(1) Darshan Mohaniya is the distorting karma that obstructs true faith. There are three subgroups.

(2) Charitra Mohaniya is the karma that keeps us from correct conduct, that is “conduct deluding” karma. There are twenty-five sub-divisions of caritras. Each sub-division of this Mohaniya karma are further sub-grouped into four kashayas.

In addition to these deluding and harmful passion-producing karmas, in its defiled state, the soul “becomes suitable ground for the continuing influence of other types of karmas”. Professor Jaini notes that these additional karmas may not be a direct cause of defilement, but somewhat opportunistically or obliquely, they rely upon a “foundation” of defilement.

We can illustrate the function of these karmas by turning to the remaining answer called for by the question – the purification of the Soul through fourteen stages. As we have seen, the soul on the first gunasthana suffers because of the presence of defiling karmas. In other words, these levels are not really “testing” stages so much as they are ways of describing the challenge posed by the presence of particular kinds of karma. The battle or confrontation is internal, and the less it appears to be a ferocious struggle, the less “ego” or passionate self is inflated into the arena, the more likely freedom is to be “won” – the karma shed and released.
Jaini describes the Fourteen gunasthanas:

The second gunasthana is reached only during a fall to the first from one of the higher states. The third is also a transition state, from the first to the fourth and vice versa. The fourth gunasthana is the first rung of the ladder toward salvation. Here, both the darsana mohaniya, and the anantanubandhi karmas of the passions must be overcome. The fifth state is attained by receiving layperson’s vows, the vratas . Certain passions are rendered inoperative. At the sixth state, the total restraints of the mendicant are received, which bring an end to the function of the pratyakhyanavarana passions. The seventh gunasthana is where even carelessness is overcome.

The next three gunasthanas, eight, nine and ten, comprise a ladder in which the aspirant may either suppress or eliminate the secondary passions and the subtle forms of the “smoldering” samjvalana passions. The eleventh step is the state attained through suppression of the samjvalana passions, and “from here a fall to the lower states is inevitable”. Back at the eighth gunasthana, the smoldering passions must be eliminated in order to move on.

The twelfth gunasthana is where even the subtle forms and the mohaniya karmas are eliminated. Thus the fourth cause of bondage, the kasaya, is overcome. Now at the thirteenth step, the remaining three ghatiya are eliminated, and all knowledge and perception-obscuring and energy-restricting karmas are gone. This is the Tirthankara level, also known as that of the arhat, kevalin, or Jina.

Finally at the fourteenth gunasthana, the last cause of bondage, the yoga or activity cause, is shed. Death itself eliminates the four last aghatiya—feeling-producing, body-producing, longevity-determining, and environment -determining karmas.

Moksha itself is achieved by the kevalin, but not as another step on the ladder. Moksha is total freedom from embodiment and incarnate karmas. For that reason, in Jaini’s pithy phrase, this final phase is “not included among the gunasthanas”.

There may be a “split of authority” over whether destiny for souls is ultimately progressive or “tinged with fatalism”. Ultimately, some Souls roll the wheel of destiny indefinitely. The abhavya doctrine dogs the bhavyatra capability quality. For the vast number of Souls, the journey through the cycle of four destinies, may appear fruitless and endless. In fact, however, the bhavyatva principle can be aroused, and the soul turns itself towards the lure of Moksha . For lack of an ending, Jain doctrine recognized that the Soul has infinity to make that turn. Retaining its knowledge, bliss, and energy, the attributes of the Soul, as its inextinguishable parts, infinity provides an abundance of time as potential, capability and opportunity, for universal freedom. Given infinity, the Soul will eventually find its freedom.

Jain doctrine assumes the existence of the Soul and the necessity of its pilgrimage of purification tied to the Karmas. The naked fact of living bondage is apparent perhaps to all beings, and most sentient beings, across all the silos of faith, seem to arrive unavoidably upon the understanding that each person plays a role in their destiny – by their intentions, words, conduct and thoughts. The image of the Soul entrapped in the frailties of flesh and the pains of constant struggle and humiliation are universal. The Jain scriptures which describe these pains as chains of bondage “forged as much by the soul’s own potential for defilement as by the effects” of the world, could be prophetic gospel across every moiety of mankind.

Interestingly, for the Jain, the Soul is not bound or limited to one path on this pilgrimage. It may not even be a “Self” that fits into philosophy or paradigm particular to one time or place. The Jaina doctrine of anekanda removes the necessity of a single method or path. As one scholar, Padmanabh Jaini puts it: “All paths can be seen as valid in some respect.”

In other words, the outcome, not the orthopraxy or means of “a fourteen step ladder”, is what is important. Thus, the Jaina coordinate (samuccaya) various methods into their path of purification (moksa-marga). Still, these words themselves remain as part of a tradition of living scripture. The “path” is personal, but not individual, not a fiction for a “self”. The “purity” refers to the absence of material karmanic contact, not abstract notions of “sin” or absolutes indifferent to intentions and consequences in the real world. With this doctrinal diversity, the pilgrimage itself is a living process.