Trishashti Shalaka Purusha Caritra
by Helen M. Johnson | 1931 | 742,503 words
This is the English translation of the Trishashti Shalaka Purusha Charita (literally “The lives of the sixty-three illustrious People”), a Sanskrit epic poem written by Hemachandra in the twelfth century. The work relates the history and legends of important figures in the Jain faith. These 63 persons include: the twenty four tirthankaras , the t...
Notes on Karaṇa (karma-destroying mental processes)
There are 3 of these karaṇas,
- yathāpravṛttikaraṇa,
- apūrvakaraṇa
- and anivṛttikaraṇa.
They are mental processes by which karma is destroyed.
By the yathāpravṛtti a huge reduction in the length of time of the karmas is to be achieved. The feeling that sāṃsara is full of sorrow and misery should arise in the mind. When the duration of the karmas (except āyus) is reduced to less than a crore of crores of sāgaropamas, one approaches the cutting of the karmic knot.
Apūrvakaraṇa makes a further reduction of karmas. In this, one manifests the desire to remove the worst type of the 4 passions.
In anivṛttikaraṇa he actually controls the worst type of 4 passions. The 3 darśanamohanīyakarmas and the worst stage of the 4 passions are rendered powerless. Then the karmic knot is cut and he reaches the first kind of saṃyaktva.
All of these karaṇas must be performed before he reaches the fourth guṇasthāna when he gets saṃyaktva. Apūrvakaraṇa is repeated—in higher degree—in the eighth guṇasthāna and anivṛttikaraṇa in the ninth guṇasthāna. The second time caritramohanīyakarma is destroyed. See Adhyātmatattvaloka, p. 300, and K.G. II. 2, PP. 57 f.