Chapter 6 · 27 sūtras
The Influx of Karma
Āsrava Adhyāya
Chapter 6 begins the working half of the text. It defines yoga — the vibration of body, speech and mind — and identifies it as āsrava, the inflow of karmic matter. Influx is of two kinds: sāmparāyika, which sticks because of passions, and īryāpatha, which touches and falls away in a passionless soul. The chapter then enumerates the forty-two subdivisions of influx (five senses, four passions, five vowlessnesses, twenty-five activities), analyses what intensifies or weakens bondage, and — most usefully for a student — lists the specific causes of each of the eight kinds of karma.
Learning objectives
- Define yoga and explain its identity with āsrava.
- Distinguish sāmparāyika from īryāpatha influx.
- List the five factors that determine the intensity of influx.
- Name the causes of jñānāvaraṇa and darśanāvaraṇa karma.
- Name the causes of sātā and asātā vedanīya.
- State the cause of tīrthaṅkara-nāma-karma.
Key concepts
- Yoga
- Not meditation here, but the vibration of the soul's space-points caused by body, speech and mind. It is the pump that draws karmic matter in. Stop yoga entirely and influx stops entirely (chapter 9-10).
- Two kinds of influx
- Sāmparāyika — influx in a soul with kaṣāyas, which binds with duration and intensity. Īryāpatha — influx in a passionless soul (11th guṇasthāna upward), which binds and falls away in the same instant.
- Forty-two subdivisions
- Five senses + four passions + five non-abstinences + twenty-five kriyās = thirty-nine, plus the three yogas, form the standard scheme by which the tradition analyses everyday activity.
- Intensity factors
- Tīvra-bhāva (intense intention), manda-bhāva (mild), jñāta-bhāva (knowingly), ajñāta-bhāva (unknowingly), vīrya (energy applied) and adhikaraṇa (instrument). Intention is decisive, not the outer act alone.
- Cause-of-karma list
- Sūtras 10-26 map specific mental attitudes to specific karmas — the most practical passage in the scripture, because it tells the student exactly which habits produce which fetters.
Diagrams
Activity opens the channel; passion makes it stick (6.1-6.5).
The most practical passage in the scripture (6.11-6.26).
Reference plates
Large master charts for this chapter. Tap to open full screen and zoom.
Karma bondage — how karma actually binds
Yoga to āsrava to kaṣāya to bandha, the five causes of inflow, the four intensities of passion, and the four dimensions of bondage: prakṛti, sthiti, anubhāga and pradeśa (6.1-6.5, 8.3-8.4).
Chapters 6, 8
Master summary sheet — the whole system on one page
Six dravyas, seven tattvas, eight karmas, twenty-eight mohanīya prakṛtis, fourteen guṇasthānas, samyagdarśana and its eight aṅgas, four kaṣāyas × four intensities, nine no-kaṣāyas, the ratnatraya, five samitis, three guptis and the full journey from mithyātva to mokṣa.
Chapters 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Sūtras
27 key sūtras of this chapter, with word-level notes and cross-links.
- 6.1
कायवाङ्मनःकर्म योगः
kāyavāṅmanaḥkarma yogaḥ
The activity of body, speech and mind is yoga.
Yoga is defined operationally. Every action, word and thought sets the soul's pradeśas vibrating, and vibration is what enables karmic matter to be drawn in.
- 6.2
स आस्रवः
sa āsravaḥ
That is influx.
Two words that identify activity with influx. There is no such thing as karmically neutral activity in an embodied soul — only activity with or without passion.
- 6.3
शुभः पुण्यस्य
śubhaḥ puṇyasya
Auspicious activity is the influx of merit.
Compassion, honesty and restraint produce puṇya — pleasant karma. Merit is still bondage, but it is a golden chain rather than an iron one.
- 6.4
अशुभः पापस्य
aśubhaḥ pāpasya
Inauspicious activity is the influx of demerit.
Violence, deceit and craving produce pāpa. The pair puṇya/pāpa is often counted alongside the seven tattvas to give the nine padārthas.
- 6.5
सकषायाकषाययोः साम्परायिकेर्यापथयोः
sakaṣāyākaṣāyayoḥ sāmparāyikeryāpathayoḥ
For those with passions the influx is sāmparāyika; for the passionless it is īryāpatha.
The pivotal distinction. Passion is the glue. Without kaṣāya, karmic matter still touches the soul because of activity, but it cannot stay — it binds and drops in the same instant.
- 6.6
इन्द्रियकषायाव्रतक्रियाः पञ्चचतुःपञ्चपञ्चविंशतिसंख्याः पूर्वस्य भेदाः
indriyakaṣāyāvratakriyāḥ pañcacatuḥpañcapañcaviṃśatisaṃkhyāḥ pūrvasya bhedāḥ
The senses, passions, non-abstinences and activities — five, four, five and twenty-five in number — are the subdivisions of the former.
The forty-two-fold analysis of worldly influx. The twenty-five kriyās include such subtle items as approving another's violence and taking pleasure in a harmful sight.
- 6.7
तीव्रमन्दज्ञाताज्ञातभावाधिकरणवीर्यविशेषेभ्यस्तद्विशेषः
tīvramandajñātājñātabhāvādhikaraṇavīryaviśeṣebhyastadviśeṣaḥ
Its intensity varies according to strong or mild intention, knowing or unknowing state, the instrument used, and the energy applied.
Jain ethics is intention-weighted but not intention-only. The same physical act binds very differently depending on these six variables.
- 6.8
अधिकरणं जीवाजीवाः
adhikaraṇaṃ jīvājīvāḥ
The instrument is either living or non-living.
One may cause harm through one's own body and mind (jīva-adhikaraṇa) or through weapons, machines and possessions (ajīva-adhikaraṇa) — including things one merely owns or lends.
- 6.9
आद्यं संरम्भसमारम्भारम्भयोगकृतकारितानुमतकषायविशेषैस्त्रिस्त्रिश्चतुर्विधम्
ādyaṃ saṃrambhasamārambhārambhayogakṛtakāritānumatakaṣāyaviśeṣaistristriścaturvidham
The living instrument is manifold through resolve, preparation and commencement, each threefold by doing, causing to do and approving, and again fourfold by the passions.
Even the intention to harm (saṃrambha), the gathering of means (samārambha) and the actual act (ārambha) each count separately, and each may be done oneself, through another, or merely condoned — multiplying culpability far beyond the visible deed.
- 6.10
निर्वर्तनानिक्षेपसंयोगनिसर्गा द्विचतुर्द्विभेदाः परम्
nirvartanānikṣepasaṃyoganisargā dvicaturdvibhedāḥ param
The non-living instrument is of two, four and two kinds respectively: making, placing, and combining or emitting.
Fashioning a weapon, leaving it carelessly where it can harm, or combining and releasing harmful substances — even inanimate objects one owns or handles become instruments of influx.
- 6.11
तत्प्रदोषनिह्नवमात्सर्यान्तरायासादनोपघाता ज्ञानदर्शनावरणयोः
tatpradoṣanihnavamātsaryāntarāyāsādanopaghātā jñānadarśanāvaraṇayoḥ
Malice towards knowledge, concealing it, envy, obstructing it, disregard and denial cause knowledge- and perception-obscuring karma.
Six named attitudes. Hiding a teaching, withholding a book, sneering at a scholar or refusing to acknowledge one's teacher literally obscures one's own future knowledge.
- 6.12
दुःखशोकतापाक्रन्दनवधपरिदेवनान्यात्मपरोभयस्थान्यसद्वेद्यस्य
duḥkhaśokatāpākrandanavadhaparidevanānyātmaparobhayasthānyasadvedyasya
Causing pain, grief, anguish, weeping, injury or lamentation — in oneself, in others, or in both — causes karma of unpleasant feeling.
Note 'in oneself'. Self-torture and self-hatred bind asātā vedanīya exactly as cruelty to others does. Austerity is not the same as self-harm.
- 6.13
भूतव्रत्यनुकम्पादानसरागसंयमादियोगः क्षान्तिः शौचमिति सद्वेद्यस्य
bhūtavratyanukampādānasarāgasaṃyamādiyogaḥ kṣāntiḥ śaucamiti sadvedyasya
Compassion for living beings and for the vowed, charity, restraint with attachment, forbearance and purity cause karma of pleasant feeling.
A workable everyday list: kindness, giving, self-control, patience, integrity. 'Sarāga-saṃyama' concedes that restraint mixed with attachment still earns merit.
- 6.14
केवलिश्रुतसंघधर्मदेवावर्णवादो दर्शनमोहस्य
kevaliśrutasaṃghadharmadevāvarṇavādo darśanamohasya
Slandering the omniscient, the scriptures, the community, the teaching and the gods causes faith-deluding karma.
The gravest of all influxes in the Jain scheme, because darśana-mohanīya blocks the very first step of the path.
- 6.15
कषायोदयात्तीव्रात्मपरिणामश्चारित्रमोहस्य
kaṣāyodayāttīvrātmapariṇāmaścāritramohasya
Intense states of the soul arising from the rise of passions cause conduct-deluding karma.
A self-reinforcing loop: passion produces the karma that produces passion. Breaking it requires the deliberate cultivation of equanimity described in chapter 9.
- 6.16
बह्वारम्भपरिग्रहत्वं च नारकस्यायुषः
bahvārambhaparigrahatvaṃ ca nārakasyāyuṣaḥ
Great activity and great possessiveness cause hellish life-karma.
A life spent in relentless violence and accumulation binds the karma that determines birth in hell.
- 6.17
मायातैर्यग्योनस्य
māyā tairyagyonasya
Deceit causes animal life-karma.
Habitual crookedness and concealment of one's real intent shape a future birth among animals.
- 6.18
अल्पारम्भपरिग्रहत्वं स्वभावमार्दवार्जवं च मानुषस्य
alpārambhaparigrahatvaṃ svabhāvamārdavārjavaṃ ca mānuṣasya
Little activity and little possessiveness, and natural gentleness and straightforwardness, cause human life-karma.
Restraint in action and possession combined with an innately soft, honest disposition brings a human birth.
- 6.19
निःशीलव्रतत्वं च सर्वेषाम्
niḥśīlavratatvaṃ ca sarveṣām
Lack of virtue and vows also causes all four kinds of life-karma.
Even without the specific attitudes above, simply living without moral discipline is enough, by itself, to bind any of the four life-karmas depending on other conditions present.
- 6.20
सरागसंयमसंयमासंयमाकामनिर्जराबालतपांसि दैवस्य
sarāgasaṃyamasaṃyamāsaṃyamākāmanirjarābālatapāṃsi daivasya
Restraint with attachment, partial restraint, involuntary shedding of karma, and ignorant austerity cause celestial life-karma.
One need not be a perfected ascetic to be reborn a god — even flawed restraint, half-vows, or self-mortification without right view can lead there.
- 6.21
योगवक्रता विसंवादनं चाशुभस्य नाम्नः
yogavakratā visaṃvādanaṃ cāśubhasya nāmnaḥ
Crookedness of activity and deceitfulness cause inauspicious body-making karma.
Duplicity — saying one thing and meaning another — shapes the very body one will next inhabit. The corresponding straightness of thought, word and deed produces auspicious nāma-karma.
- 6.22
विपरीतं शुभस्य
viparītaṃ śubhasya
The opposite causes auspicious body-making karma.
Straightforwardness of activity and truthfulness — the reverse of the crookedness and deceit of the previous sūtra — shape an auspicious, pleasing body.
- 6.23
दर्शनविशुद्धिर्विनयसम्पन्नता शीलव्रतेष्वनतिचारोऽभीक्ष्णज्ञानोपयोगसंवेगौ शक्तितस्त्यागतपसी संघसाधुसमाधिर्वैयावृत्त्यकरणमर्हदाचार्यबहुश्रुतप्रवचनभक्तिरावश्यकापरिहाणिर्मार्गप्रभावना प्रवचनवत्सलत्वमिति तीर्थकृत्त्वस्य
darśanaviśuddhirvinayasampannatā śīlavrateṣvanaticāro'bhīkṣṇajñānopayogasaṃvegau śaktitastyāgatapasī saṃghasādhusamādhirvaiyāvṛttyakaraṇamarhadācāryabahuśrutapravacanabhaktirāvaśyakāparihāṇirmārgaprabhāvanā pravacanavatsalatvamiti tīrthakṛttvasya
Purity of faith, reverence, flawless observance of vows, constant pursuit of knowledge, fear of the cycle, charity and austerity within one's capacity, service to the community and to ascetics, devotion to the Arhats, teachers and scripture, not neglecting the essential duties, propagating the path, and affection for fellow-followers — these sixteen cause Tīrthaṅkara-nāma-karma.
The sixteen bhāvanās. The highest karma in the universe is bound not by miracles but by sustained purity of faith, study, service and care for others.
- 6.24
परात्मनिन्दाप्रशंसे सदसद्गुणाच्छादनोद्भावने च नीचैर्गोत्रस्य
parātmanindāpraśaṃse sadasadguṇācchādanodbhāvane ca nīcairgotrasya
Deprecating others while praising oneself, and concealing real virtues while flaunting unreal ones, cause low-status karma.
Self-glorification built on belittling others and misrepresenting merit binds the karma of an ignoble, disrespected birth.
- 6.25
तद्विपर्ययो नीचैर्वृत्त्यनुत्सेकौ चोत्तरस्य
tadviparyayo nīcairvṛttyanutsekau cottarasya
The opposite, together with humility and freedom from conceit, causes high-status karma.
Honestly acknowledging others' virtues, humility of conduct, and freedom from pride bind the karma of a noble, respected birth.
- 6.26
विघ्नकरणमन्तरायस्य
vighnakaraṇamantarāyasya
Creating obstacles causes obstructive karma.
Preventing someone from giving, receiving, enjoying or exerting themselves binds antarāya-karma — which then obstructs exactly those capacities in oneself.
- 6.27
दानादीनां च वैपरीत्यमन्तरायस्य
dānādīnāṃ ca vaiparītyamantarāyasya
Likewise, obstruction with respect to giving and the other four capacities causes obstructive karma.
Hindering another's charity, gain, enjoyment, repeated enjoyment or energy — in any of these five respects — completes the causes of antarāya-karma, the last of the eight.