Causes of Karma

The karmic process in Jainism is based on seven truths or fundamental principles (tattva) of Jainism which explain the human predicament. Out of those, four—influx (āsrava), bondage (bandha), stoppage (saṃvara) and release (nirjarā)—pertain to the karmic process. Karma gets bound to the soul on account of two processes:

The āsrava, that is, the influx of karma occurs when the karmic particles are attracted to the soul on account of vibrations created by activities of mind, speech and body.Tattvārthasūtra, 6:1–2 states: "The activities of body, speech and mind is called yoga. This three-fold action results in āsrava or influx of karma." The karmic inflow on account of yoga driven by passions and emotions cause a long term inflow of karma prolonging the cycle of reincarnations. On the other hand, the karmic inflows on account of actions that are not driven by passions and emotions have only a transient, short-lived karmic effect.

The karmas are attracted to the consciousness by combination of the following factors pertaining to action—instrumentality, process, modality and motivation Thus, the karmas are attracted and bound on account of combination any element of the following four factors:

With a combination of any of the elements of the above four factors, there are 108 ways with which the karmas can be attracted to the soul. Even a silent assent or endorsements of acts of violence done by someone else far away, have karmic consequences for the soul. Hence, the scriptures advice carefulness in actions, awareness of the world, and purity in thoughts as a means to avoid the karmas.

The karmas have effect only when they are bound to the consciousness. This binding of the karma to the consciousness is called bandha. However, the yoga or the activities alone do not produce bondage. Out of the many causes of bondage, passion is considered as the main cause of bondage. The karmas are literally bound on account of the stickiness of the soul due to existence of various passions or mental dispositions. The passions like anger, pride, deceit and greed are called sticky (kasayas) because they act like glue in making karmic particles stick to the soul resulting in bandha. Hence the ancient Jain texts talk of subduing these negative emotions:

When he wishes that which is good for him, he should get rid of the four fault—anger, pride, deceit and greed—which increase the evil. Anger and pride when not suppressed, and deceit and greed when arising: all these four black passions water the roots of re-birth.

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