Samvara and Nirjara: Stopping and Shedding Karma

Samvara and nirjara are the two tattvas that reverse the process of bondage and constitute the active, practical heart of the Jain path. Where asrava and bandha describe how karma streams into the soul and binds it, samvara and nirjara describe how that influx is stopped and how the accumulated karma is expelled. Together they form the twin engines of liberation, one preventive and one curative.

Samvara means "stoppage" or "restraint," and the term evokes the closing of the channels through which karma flows. If asrava is water pouring into a boat through open leaks, samvara is the plugging of those leaks so that no more water enters. It is the deliberate arrest of the influx of new karmic matter, achieved by countering each cause of asrava with its opposite. Where wrong belief brought influx, right faith stops it; where lack of restraint brought influx, the vows stop it; where carelessness brought influx, vigilance stops it; where passion brought influx, equanimity stops it; and where activity brought influx, its stilling stops it.

Jain texts enumerate the means of samvara in several well-known lists. There are the five samitis, or carefulnesses, governing careful movement, careful speech, careful acceptance of food and alms, careful handling of objects, and careful disposal of bodily wastes, all to avoid harm. There are the three guptis, or restraints, controlling the activities of mind, speech, and body. There are the ten virtues of dharma, including forbearance, humility, straightforwardness, contentment, truth, restraint, austerity, renunciation, non-attachment, and celibacy. There are the twelve anuprekshas, or reflections, contemplations on impermanence, the solitariness of the soul, and the nature of the world that loosen attachment. There is the endurance of the twenty-two parishahas, the hardships such as hunger, thirst, cold, and heat that the ascetic bears without flinching. And there is charitra, right conduct itself. By practising these, the aspirant seals the soul against fresh bondage.

Nirjara means "shedding," "wearing away," or "dissociation," and it denotes the falling off of karmic matter that has already bound the soul. Stopping new karma is not enough, for a vast store of karma remains from past deeds; nirjara removes it. Jain tradition distinguishes two kinds. Savipaka nirjara, also called akama nirjara, is the "involuntary" or natural shedding that occurs when karma ripens in its own time, yields its fruit of pleasure or pain, and then falls away exhausted. This happens automatically to all beings but yields no lasting spiritual gain, since new karma is bound even as old karma departs.

Avipaka nirjara, also called sakama nirjara, is the "deliberate" shedding, the premature ripening and expulsion of karma through conscious spiritual effort before its natural time of fruition. This is accomplished above all through tapas, austerity, which is the great instrument of nirjara. Jainism classifies austerity into external and internal forms. The six external austerities include fasting, reduced eating, restriction of foods, giving up delicacies, mortification of the body, and solitary residence. The six internal austerities, held to be more powerful, include expiation and confession, reverence, service to teachers and the meritorious, scriptural study, renunciation of attachment, and meditation. Of these, dhyana, meditation, is regarded as the supreme means of shedding karma.

The complementary working of the two tattvas is essential. Samvara alone would halt new bondage but leave the old karma to run its course; nirjara alone, without samvara, would shed old karma while new karma continually replaced it. Practised together, samvara closes the door while nirjara empties the room, so that the total store of karma steadily diminishes. When at last the final particle of karma is shed and no further influx remains, the soul attains moksha. Thus samvara and nirjara are not abstract principles but the very disciplines of Jain religious life, the daily labour by which the soul works its own release.