Jailer
Understand Jain concept of Karma using easy to understand analogy of a Jailer. Adapted from a book by the same name “Jailer” written by very learned scholar Revered Jain Acharya Shri Abhay Shekhar Suriji Maharaj Saheb.
A criminal robbed a house. The police arrested him and there was a case against him in the court. The judge sentenced the criminal to ten years of rigorous imprisonment. Did the prisoner desire punishment? No. Then why did the court sentence him? Because he committed a crime.
Despite making the prisoner labour from morning through night, can the prisoner ask the Jailer, “What have I done to you that you are punishing me?”. Can the prisoner say, “Rather, let the person, whose home I robbed, punish me.”
Why should the prisoner take the Jailer’s punishment? This is because a Jailer only carries out the sentence as per the court’s order. The prisoner should understand that the Jailer punishes him not of his own accord but because of the court’s order.
Suppose the government wants to pass a law that abolishes all courts, jails and punishment from the country, that is, there won’t be any court in the entire country, there won’t be neither jail nor a jailer and that people are free to behave in any manner they please. Would we agree or disagree with such a law? We would definitely disagree. Why? This is because we know that in such a situation there will not be any law and order in this country.
Someone finds success easily and others do not achieve it even after striving hard. Someone finds happiness wherever they go while for others, sorrows never leave their back. Why reward one and punish the other? Who is nature’s own and who does it disown? The answer is simple. People who have done good deeds are rewarded by nature and the wrong-doers are punished by it. Nature has its own mechanism to maintain the law and order. And that mechanism is called Karma.
While a government’s law and order includes only human beings, nature has a law that covers all living forms including humans, animals, birds, crawling creatures, the tiniest insects and single-sensed beings like vegetation.
While the task of the court is to only authorise punishment, the task of executing the punishment is assigned to the Jailer. Similarly, while Karma decides punishment, who performs the task of the jailer?
The enlightened say that the jailer could be your own brother, your spouse, your parents, your children, your neighbour or your boss. All the souls around us are the officiating jailers in this court of Karma. Any one from amongst these jailers will administer punishment to you when required.
Someone has hurt us. Why can’t I hurt him back?
What will happen if the prisoner fights back. If he retaliates the jailer or escapes the prison, his situation will only get worse. There is only one chance for him to reduce his punishment and that is by bearing it patiently.
The only way to alleviate the punishment meted by your own Karma is to bear it with equanimity.
The Jailer may make the prisoner do hard labour or if the court has so ordered, even hang him. It is not the Jailer who is wicked, it is the prisoner’s wrong-doing for which he has to suffer. Similarly, it is worth remembering and repeating that
It is my own karmas which are the cause of my misery.
We are being punished for our own crimes. Any person inflicting misery on us are just like the Jailers. Such thoughts fortify one’s forbearance. A soul is then able to bear even terrible shocks with composure.
During the twelve and a half years of Lord Mahavir’s penance for self-realisation, he had to bear excessive animosity from many including but not limited to Sangam, Shoolpani, Katpootla and the cowherd. But he safeguarded himself from bearing any hatred towards them. He understood his own karmas were to blame. He bore them with peace.
If there is a person who has hurt us for no apparent reasons. How does one bear injustice?
There is never any injustice in the design of Karma. In the present life you may not have committed any wrong but only if we could extend our vision beyond this life into the past lives, we know that crimes committed during those lives come back to haunt us in this. We will then understand that there was no injustice. The mind will be ready to accept the punishment and will bear it with composure.
In his birth as Vasudev, the soul of Bhagwan Mahavir had an extremely hot, molten lead be poured into a guard’s ears. Nature paid him back in his last birth before salvation. In his life as Bhagwan Mahavir, a cowherd drilled wooden nails into his ears. Lord Mahavir bore the terrible pain with extraordinary equanimity, reconciled to the fact that it was a punishment for his past crimes.
How do you convince your heart that a person whom you loved and made sacrifices for, for whom you have borne many difficulties and for whom you considered important matters as trivial in their time of need, is out to harass you in all possible ways?
These incidents are a common occurrence. One may not be at fault, may not have committed any mistake but if the other person has a wrong notion about you, considers you to be evil and a cause of harassment, it is very difficult to pacify that person otherwise.
The jailer is never evil. To a person who has no knowledge of the concept of a jail may consider jailer a wicked person. Similarly, one who has no belief in re-incarnation and karma, may think of all the souls inflicting affliction as evil.
If a person gives us a lot of trouble, harasses us time and again and causes a nuisance, we nurture a feeling of anger and revenge towards him. We feel we want to do something really unimaginable but are unable to do it. This upsets and agitates our mind. One has to remember such a person is only the jailer and is not evil.
