to America) one might go there, and when there acquire evil karma, or, in the same way through omitting to take a vow against eating certain things one is liable to eat them and so acquire karma (Apratyākhyānikī). By looking at some object with excessive love or hatred, one makes a channel for karma to enter (Dṛiṣṭiki), and by touching other objects one produces the same effect (Spṛiṣṭikī). Another interesting belief of the Jaina under this head is that sin committed in a previous existence forms a channel through which, in this life, karma may be more easily acquired (Prātityakī). The Jaina, who in all sorts of ways show their realization of the dangers of wealth, believe that if the possessor of many goods be much praised for possessing them and thus give way to conceit, he opens the way for evil karma to accrue (Sāmantopanipātikī).
Machinery is guilty of destroying so much insect life, that Jaina should only use it with the greatest caution, for a man, even if he be an employé working at the express command of a rajah whom he is bound to obey, does not therefore rid himself of his personal responsibility, but acquires evil karma through every life he takes (Naiśastrikī).[1] The employer, however, is also responsible, and if a servant in obedience to his master's order so acts as to injure any jīva, his guilt is shared by his master, who will also have acquired evil karma (Svahastikī). There is an expressive Gujarātī adjective ‘doḍhaḍāhyuṁ’ applied to people who are too wise by half; when folk suffer from this in religious matters and know more than Mahāvīra taught, they open the way for karma to flow in (Ājñāpanikī). Defamation also leads to karma, and if a man unjustly speaks ill of another, he has thereby opened the door to evil karma (Vaidāraṇikī). The caustic wit of the Jaina shows in the next item on the list, for they teach that if a man pretends to be listening to a sermon with great interest and all the time his wits are wool-gathering, he has
- ↑ Or Naisṛiṣṭikī.
