(The following is a translated part of Acharya Shree’s book sukh ka stotra kahan)
In our world, there is no one who has not experienced happiness and sadness. People want the former. Nobody wants the latter. If we get a desirable thing or situation, then it is okay but when we get something undesirable, sorrow comes up and the question arises – from where did it come forth? Happiness and sorrow both come from the same space. The doorway is the same. From a single doorway, a man can also come. So can a dog. So can a donkey. Then the question arises that despite man’s best efforts to gain joy, he gets pain too. Why?
The answer to this question is that one’s soul is the creator of happiness and sorrow both.
There is no other who is creating these. There is no creator of the basis of existence. Neither soul nor supreme soul nor god. Happiness and sorrow are not the basis of existence. Nor is human body. These are just temporary states. The basis of existence or the root element is soul and atom. There is no creator of an atom. But there are states of an atom. The doer or creator of these states is the atom itself. Similarly, there is no creator of the soul. There are just states of the soul which are created by itself. Soul is consciousness and knowledge. That is why, it creates happiness and sorrow when it desires to create them. Question would be – does anybody desire for the latter? According to Jain Darshan, someone who wants happiness wants sorrow as well. The one who desires to live, desires to die as well. Happiness and sorrow are twins. So are life and death. If there is a desire, both will come.
Gautam Swami asked Lord Mahaveer,”O venerable one, Who created sorrow? God replied – Our soul. The whole responsibility of being in a certain state lies on ourselves. Nobody else is responsible.”
It is seen that people do not take responsibility for something gone wrong. They like to wear the responsibility of what went well – that is something they don’t like to give to others. According to Jain Darshan, people themselves are responsible for anything gone good and bad. Nobody else.
In this state of knowledge, a new state of consciousness is developed. If everything is our doing, then who can be blamed? Instruments do exist. The universe provides ample of them for the manifestation of our own karma. For example, an unfavourable situation such as an illness comes up in life, the man becomes sad. Here the situation of illness is an instrument. But happiness or sorrow is not experienced by a situation. They are experienced by a person.
The Doer of Happiness & Sorrow
Suppose an anger-inducing incident occurs. You feel you should get angry. But there is a system in the brain which will direct you to not get angry. It will suggest that it is not the right time to get angry. If this controlling mechanism was not in place, man would lose himself.
The knowledge of such a controlling mechanism has been given to us by modern science. The science of karma suggests on a similar note- there are two types of karma – one is shata vedaniye karma* and the other is ashata vedaniye karma*. The former causes happiness. The latter causes sorrow. Both are opposing forces that are not active together. When one is active, the other is silent and vice-a-versa.
In our consciousness, there is wakefulness and inertia both. Within us there is a tendency to be in delusion and the ability to silence it. When moha or delusion is silent, we live with a righteous conduct while when it is active, we live with an unrighteous conduct. A good naam karma causes good particles to be experienced and a bad one causes bad particles to be experienced. We receive respect sometimes and we receive disrespect some other times. Sometimes a person is good to us and the same person is not good to us at some other time. A man has been a thief sometime and has been a saint some other time. This duality is within us. Therefore, we are the doers of both, happiness and sorrow.
The Rules Of Karma & Happiness
We have three mediums for expression – mind , speech and body. The way we express ourselves through these mediums decides the nature of the karma particles that we collect. These karma particles induce emotions of happiness or sorrow in us. Let us see how.
Science tells us that a certain biochemical is responsible for a certain emotion which in turn causes a certain type of conduct, which influences a person’s behaviour. A person‘s violent behaviour is a result of a certain biochemical. This is exactly the kind of mechanism in place in our subtle bodies. The kind of impressions we form causes the creation of similar biochemicals in our body, which create emotions. This is a sequence. We have three bodies- a gross body which is visible to us (in which biochemicals are released), a subtle body which collects karma and the subtlest body which remains untainted.
So there exists rules but there is no ruler. It rained. Grass grew. This happened because of a law of nature. Who is the ruler here? No one. Our whole world is run by such laws.
Two kinds of laws exist – a universal law and a temporal law (based on a time frame). Temporal laws are made by humans and are temporary. Universal laws are applicable in all time frames. A child is born. He gets old. Who made him old? Nobody. Everything in the world gets old and finishes in accordance with time. This is a universal law. The meaning of finding the truth is finding the laws. The development of science is attributed to the discovery of laws. The development of a Darshan or branch of philosophy is also attributed to discovery of laws. Who ever has found out a law has unlocked a dimension of existential truth.
The supporting material for the workings of rules is the entire creation. Matter, space, time etc. become instruments. For example, the instrument for arousing anger can be many – somebody saying something bitter or something which does not fall in one’s framework of rightness, somebody not following your instructions. But the person getting angry is himself alone. He can either be a doer or a ruler. He can either get angry (and in the process spoil his happiness) or rule over his anger. According to Jain Darshan, a person is responsible for their fate. So neither beg anyone nor blame anyone. Don’t think that a certain person will build your life nor think that a certain person will ruin it. When this principle is understood, a person can stand on their own feet. Their attention goes towards their conduct. Is my conduct and behaviour making my life miserable? This is an important question.
It is essential to know that following certain rules can make someone happy or sad. Meritorious karma follows a rule. Bad karma follows a rule. And so does liberation.
*Causes for Shätä vedaniya – 1. To show compassion to two, three and four sense living beings, 2. To show compassion to “plant” living beings, 3. To show compassion to five sense living beings, 4. To show compassion to other four one-sense living beings, 5. Not to make any living beings sad, 6. Not to cause sorrow to any living beings, 7. Not to harass any living beings, 8. Not to make anyone cry, 9. Not to hurt any living beings, and 10. Not to give hard time to anyone.
* Causes for Ashätä vedaniya: 1. sadness, 2. sorrow, 3. regretting, 4. crying, 5. violence and 6. causing hardship
Acharya Mahapragya 