Karma

Topic: Buddhism, Jainism and Heterodox Traditions · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 7 "India's Cultural Roots"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings"

Meaning

Karma means a person's actions. These actions decide what their next birth will be in the cycle of birth and rebirth. In Jainism, a person can break free from this cycle through asceticism (hard self-discipline) and penance (self-punishment to wipe out past karma), and only by renouncing the world (giving up home, family and property).

It matters because karma and rebirth were the central questions for thinkers of the c. 6th century BCE. Each tradition's answer to "how do we escape karma?" shaped its whole way of life. For the Jainas, the answer was the life of a monk or nun.

Explanation

Background — the question everyone was asking

• From about the 6th century BCE, many thinkers in north India asked the same question: what happens after death, and why are people born again?
• The shared answer was rebirth: a soul is born again and again. Karma, meaning your own deeds, decides the form of each new birth.
• Different schools agreed that the cycle existed. They disagreed about how to get out of it, and whether a person could get out at all.
• Jainism and Buddhism were heterodox traditions. "Heterodox" means they rejected the authority of the Vedas and Vedic ritual sacrifice. So for them, escape from karma could not come from rituals. It had to come from the way a person lived.

Karma in Jainism — how the idea works

• The chain of cause and effect:
• You act, and your actions create karma.
• Karma shapes your next birth, so the cycle of birth and rebirth goes on.

• Asceticism and penance wear away karma, and this frees you from the cycle.

• Why renunciation is required:

• This freedom is possible only by renouncing the world.
• So, for Jainas, monastic life (the life of a monk or nun) is a necessary condition of salvation.

• A householder alone cannot reach liberation. This is a sharp contrast with many other traditions.

• Link to "the whole world is alive":

• The key Jaina belief is that the entire world is animated (alive). Even stones, rocks and water have life.
• So almost every action can harm some living being. That means almost every action can create karma.
• This is why Jainas practise ahimsa (not injuring any living being) so strictly. It covers harm in thought as well as by hand.

The rules that put the idea into practice

• Monks and nuns took the five mahāvratas (five "great vows" of renunciation) [2][3]:
• abstain from killing
• abstain from stealing
• abstain from lying
• observe celibacy

• abstain from possessing property

• Parshvanātha (23rd tīrthankara) had given four of these vows. Mahāvīra added celibacy [2][3].

• Aparigraha (non-possession, or detachment from material things) is part of the Jaina three-fold message. Owning less means fewer ties that bind a person to the world.
• Mahāvīra's own life followed this path:
• He left home at 30.
• He practised ascetic discipline for 12 years.
• He then gained "infinite knowledge" and was called Jina ("conqueror"). He had conquered ignorance and attachments, not land.

How other schools answered the same question

• Buddhism: The Buddha also accepted karma and rebirth. But he taught a middle path. It avoided extreme self-punishment and stressed right conduct and right thinking. Householders found this easier to follow than Jaina asceticism.
• Ajivikas: According to the Buddhist texts used by NCERT, the Ajivika thinker Makkhali Gosala held a fatalist view: everything is fixed in advance. Neither good deeds nor penance could shorten the cycle of rebirth. Wise people and fools alike would reach the end of sorrow only after a set number of births.
• Result: The same idea of karma led to very different ways of living: compulsory monkhood (Jainas), a moderate moral life (Buddhists), and acceptance of fate (Ajivikas).

Time, place and evidence

• Period: c. 6th century BCE onward. This was the age of Mahāvīra and the Buddha.
• Region: The Ganga valley in north India. Mahāvīra was born Prince Vardhamāna near Vaiśhālī (Bihar) in the early 6th century BCE. His traditional dates are c. 599–527 BCE [3]. Parshvanātha taught at Banaras in the 7th century BCE, according to Britannica [2].
• Key people: Parshvanātha, Mahāvīra, the Buddha, and Makkhali Gosala.
• How we know:
• Jaina texts: Jaina scholars wrote in Prakrit, Sanskrit and Tamil. These texts were kept for centuries in libraries attached to temples. The scriptures are preserved in the Jaina canon (Agamas) [4].
• The Uttarādhyayana Sutta (Prakrit): queen Kamalāvatī urges her husband to renounce the world. This shows the Jaina belief that renunciation is the way out of karma.
• Jaina stories such as that of Rohineya, a burglar. He heard Mahāvīra's sermon, confessed his crimes and became a monk. The story teaches that right action can change a person's path, and that no one is fixed by their past.
• Buddhist texts record the views of rival thinkers such as the Ajivikas. These are hostile accounts, so they must be read with care.

Don't confuse with

• Karma vs dharma/dhamma: Karma means one's actions and their results across births. Dharma/dhamma means the right path or moral law that a person should follow.
• Jaina karma vs Buddhist karma: Both accept karma and rebirth. But Jainism makes asceticism and renunciation compulsory for salvation. The Buddha's middle path rejected extreme self-punishment.
• Ajivika fatalism vs Jaina/Buddhist karma: Jainas and Buddhists believed effort and conduct could free a person. The Ajivikas believed the number of births was fixed and that effort could not change it.
• Karma vs ahimsa: Ahimsa is a rule of conduct (non-injury). Karma is the law of cause and effect that explains why that rule matters.

Prelims Hooks

• In Jainism, freedom from karma and rebirth comes through asceticism and penance. It is possible only by renouncing the world, so monastic life is a necessary condition for salvation.
• Parshvanātha (23rd tīrthankara) gave four vows. Mahāvīra added celibacy, making the five mahāvratas [2][3].
• The core Jaina belief behind strict karma rules: the whole world is animated, and even stones, rocks and water have life.
• Makkhali Gosala is linked to the Ajivikas and to fatalism. Trap: he is not a Jaina or Buddhist teacher.
• Jina means "conqueror", from which the word "Jain" comes. The conquest is of ignorance and attachments, not territory.
• The Uttarādhyayana Sutta (Prakrit) features queen Kamalāvatī, who urges her husband to renounce the world.

Mains Points

• One idea, many answers. Karma and rebirth were shared ground in c. 6th-century BCE thought. The schools split over how to escape the cycle. Jainas chose strict renunciation, the Buddha chose a middle path, and the Ajivikas held that fate could not be changed. This variety shows how lively and open debate was in this period.
• Why Jainism stayed smaller than Buddhism. Jainism linked escape from karma to compulsory monkhood and extreme ahimsa. This made it hard for ordinary householders to follow fully. The Buddha's moderate path was easier to adopt, which partly explains why Buddhism spread more widely.
• Lasting legacy. Karma joined to ahimsa made moral conduct towards all living beings a religious duty. NCERT says ahimsa "has left its mark on Indian thinking as a whole". This thread runs through Ashokan dhamma, vegetarian practice and modern non-violent political thought.

Related concepts

• Jainism
• Tirthankara
• Rishabhanatha
• Parshvanatha
• Mahavira
• Kevala jnana
• Ahimsa
• Five vows of Jainism
• Aparigraha
• Triratna of Jainism

Read more

• Mahāvīra and the message of the Jainas