By Navjivan Express 
Many questions plague humans in life, such as why are some people rich and some poor? Why are some wise and some foolish? Why are some healthy and some sick? Why are some beautiful and some ugly? Why are some white and some black? Why are some successful and some unsuccessful? The answer to which can only be found by understanding karma and its principles. Almost all religions have accepted the importance of karma because there is no option without accepting karma to understand the inequality prevailing in the world. Karma is not a subject of faith like religion. Karma is a systematic science, logical and sensible, just as science has its own principles, karma also has a principle in which there is no exception. The cycle of karma is unbelievable. The scriptures say that “birth is the result of karma. The cause of each suffering in human life is the karma and it can be resolved only by one’s own karma. Now if karma is so important, then one has to understand what is karma, how does karmic bondage occur, and how can one get rid of it?
According to common understanding, karma means action or conduct. Action can be done in three ways: through thoughts, through speech and through conduct. So that the actions done by the mind, speech and body can generally be recognized as karma. But throughout life, from morning to evening, a person keeps doing actions with the mind, speech and body continuously and if all these actions are karma, then it becomes almost impossible to get rid of karma. Because how can one live without deeds or work? But in reality, not all work or deed is karma, only the actions done with the mind, speech or body for the fulfilment of selfishness with a specific type of desire or motive become karma. In short, “Karma means all kinds of actions done with a resolution and with the intention of expectation.” If the intention is good and the action is pure, then there is happiness in life, and if the intention is impure and the action is bad, then there is suffering in life. Thus, when the elements of selfish purpose, instinct and ego are mixed in the normal deeds or action, then even a simple action becomes a karma and then one has to suffer its result (fruits).
In fact, the root of all karma lies in latent desires. Desire is the seed of karma and as long as the seed exists, the tree will be born and the seed will be produced again from the tree, in this way the tradition of karma is created, so that liberation from desire is very necessary for liberation from karma. The main causes of karma bondage are various afflictions. Afflictions are the root of karma. As long as there are afflictions, new karma will be created. According to the philosophy of yoga, there are five main such afflictions:
- Avidya
That is, ignorance or false knowledge, due to which a person feels the truth to be false and falsehood to be true. Due to which a person forgets the soul-supreme soul and starts loving the world. His original form, Forgetting the nature of the soul and becoming attached to worldly objects, things and people, which creates many desires and to fulfil them, many good and bad karmas continue to be performed, which creates many sorrows and pains during life, which can only be released by suffering, and to suffer the remaining karmas, one has to go through the cycle of rebirth. Thus, the main reason behind the cycle of birth and death is ignorance. The main one among the five afflictions is ignorance which creates the other four afflictions such as ego, passion-hate and attachment.
- ego is over self-esteem
Due to which the feeling of ‘egoism’ i.e. ‘I’ separate from others is born. Through this, a person gets confused in his own visual power and sees other souls in front of him. In this way, the illusions of ‘I’-mine as well as my own and others arise, from which passion and hatred begin. Love for one’s own people and aversion for others are born.
- passion
Especially towards one’s own or personal people Passion or loving attachment is passion. From here begins the journey of attachment and infatuation of a person. Attraction towards the object, subject, person through whom one feels joy or happiness increases. Such passion makes a person addicted to pleasant experiences and to get it continuously, a person becomes ready to do any immoral or inappropriate deeds.
- Hatred
Hatred is dislike for any object or person. Which creates a feeling of opposition or contempt in a person. Due to which, discomfort and unrest arise in life. Passion and hatred are two opposite poles of emotion which create a lot of painful karmas.
- ABHINIVESH (JIJIVISHA)
The desire to stay alive. For which a person keeps doing many good or bad deeds throughout his life. The fear of death is also a part of JIJIVISHA. By acquiring true knowledge or wisdom, a person understands that the soul never dies so he becomes fearless. From the fear of death or It is necessary to understand that it is absolutely inappropriate to resort to any immoral actions for the desire to live.
In short, the most dangerous and important of the five afflictions is ignorance. From this, the remaining four arise. The soul’s auto power of self-knowledge is covered by ignorance, and from being omniscient, he becomes ignorant person. As the intellect arises in him, ego is born and the relationship with the material world established. Where the bonds of the body make it extroverted. Love-hate and greed arise. Love-hate binds him to the wheel of samsara. Where his rationality ends. Ego, love-hate, selfish greed creates many prejudices and distortions in him. Which makes a person chase after many illusory dreams and the journey of increasing samsara progresses rapidly.
According to Jainism, the main six causes of karma bondage
1) Falsehood
Falsehood means seeing things differently than they really are, not seeing credit and love as they really are, not seeing what is worth getting and what is worth giving up as it really is. Lack of knowledge, lack of intellect to see the result, due to which the journey of life turns in the opposite direction and the person does many wrong deeds.
2) KASHAYA (major evils)
The feelings of attachment and hatred that expand the world are called KASHAYA. KASHAYA are the vices like attachment and hatred, greed and avarice, delusion and illusion, lust and anger, ego, jealousy that work to expand the world and make liberation difficult. The soul is always beating with such KASHAYA. As a result, it becomes restless and attracts the particles of karma that are prevalent in the universe towards itself due to many wrong deeds. As a result, it creates a continuous cycle of suffering.
3) Inauspicious Yoga
Yoga means joining or connection. A person, for the fulfilment of his desires, engages in many inauspicious karmas such as violence, theft, adultery, dishonesty, corruption, etc., through his mind, speech and body, which binds him in bondage and creates many sorrows.
4) Incontinence
continence means restraint and incontinence means lack of restraint. If restraint and contentment are achieved in life, then many karmas can be avoided.
5) Laziness;
Laziness means procrastination. Even after gaining true knowledge, if it is not put into practice, that is, if there is delay or laziness in the practice after gaining knowledge, then the desired result cannot be achieved even by the best yoni like a human being.
6) 18 places of sins;
In Jainism, a detailed explanation of the 18 places (houses) of sins where sins reside has been given. Which are the reasons responsible for the bondage of karma. These eighteen places of sin are violence, lies, theft, sex, hoarding, anger, pride, delusion, greed, lust, hatred, slander, blaming others, taking advantage of someone, joy, excitement, cheating, deceit-betrayal and ignorance.
Through ignorance or falsehood, the soul is attracted to the KASHAYA, from which many desires are created. Which leads a person to inauspicious (yoga) connection and intemperance (Incontinence) as well as laziness make the life’s course unbridled. Due to which many karmas are bound that make the soul cry for many births. We will discuss the way to escape from many such karmas in the next article.
Prof. Shilpa Shah,
H.K BBA College, Ahmedabad
20th March, 2026