In Jainism, all such birth-conditions are results of our own past karmas (especially pāpa karmas), but scriptures usually speak in general categories, not by naming modern medical terms like “autism” directly.

So we should understand it in principle, not as a rigid one‑to‑one list.

1. General Jain view

• The soul (jīv) is completely pure, full of infinite knowledge and happiness.
• Because of karmic bondage from past lives, the soul takes birth with:

- strong / weak body (śarīra) - sharp / dull mind (buddhi) - complete / incomplete sense organs (eyes, ears, etc.)

• These are mainly results of:

- Mohaniya karma (deluding karma – anger, pride, deceit, greed) - Jñānāvaraṇī & Darśanāvaraṇī karma (knowledge‑ and perception‑obscuring karmas) - Nāma & Gotra karma (body‑forming and status‑forming karmas)

No one else (not God, not parents) is blamed; only the soul’s own karma.

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2. About each condition (in simple Jain terms)

I will use very simple, broad matching:

a. Autism / severe mental & sensory difficulties

Scriptures don’t use the word “autism”, but describe births with:

• disturbed mind,
• difficulty in communication,
• difficulty understanding or interacting.

These are generally connected with:

• Intense inner disturbance and passions in past lives

(lot of anger, fear, hate, cruelty, cheating, etc.)

• Very careless mental violence:

enjoying others’ pain, no compassion, making fun of weak, mentally ill or disabled people.

• Heavy Jñānāvaraṇī & Mohaniya karma: blocking natural clarity of mind.

Important: Jainism never says such a soul is “bad”; it only says past karmic load is heavy, and in this life the family must give more dayā (compassion), not hatred.

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b. Manda-buddhi (dull intellect, low IQ, very slow learning)

Main causes in karmic language:

• Disrespect or insult of true knowledge, scriptures, and teachers

– mocking śāstra, making fun of sādhu/sādhvī, misleading others away from right path.

• Using intelligence for cheating, stealing, harming, not for dharma.
• Misuse of speech and mind: spreading false knowledge, gossip, lies.
• Strong Jñānāvaraṇī karma (obstructing knowledge).

Result: in next birth, brain and mind instruments are weak, so soul’s knowledge can’t express fully.

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c. Blindness (and very weak eyes)

Traditional karmic causes mentioned:

• Taking away another’s sight or means of seeing, directly or indirectly:

- physical violence to eyes of humans or animals, - burning, blinding, cruel experiments, - supporting or enjoying such acts.

• Doing deep himsā in darkness, trapping or killing beings who cannot see.
• Severe Darśanāvaraṇī karma (perception‑obscuring) joined with Nāma karma related to faulty sense‑organs.

Therefore, the soul gets a body where eyes or visual system is damaged or absent.

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d. Deafness (cannot hear) and

e. Dumbness (cannot speak)

Jain explanation is parallel:

1. Deafness – misuse of hearing in past:

- Enjoying hearing others’ pain, violence, abusive talks. - Constantly listening to, encouraging and spreading slander, harsh speech, lies. - Ignoring good advice, scriptures, pravachan out of ego. - Related karmas: Darśanāvaraṇī + Nāma karma of defective ear‑sense.

1. Dumbness / severe speech difficulty – misuse of speech in past:

- Constant lies, cheating, harsh words, abuses. - Speech used to divide families, create enmity, harm reputations. - Mocking saints, God, scriptures. - Related karmas: Jñānāvaraṇī + Mohaniya + Nāma karma of defective speech‑organ.

So in this birth, instruments (ears, tongue, brain centers) come weak or blocked.

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3. Very important Jain points

1. Never hate or insult such souls

- They are not sinners in this life because of their present condition. - They are souls on their journey, same as us, sometimes paying off old karmas. - Hating or mocking them now creates fresh heavy paap for us.

1. Parents & caregivers

- From Jain view, they get a chance to do great punya by giving: - loving care, patience, pure vegetarian / Jain diet, - protection from violence, - environment of mantra, pratikraman, śravaṇ of dharma. - Their compassion can lighten the child’s karmas and their own.

1. No fatalism

- Karma is not a punishment from a cruel God. - It is just a natural result of past actions. - Through: - Ahimsā, - samayik, pratikraman, japa, - seva of weak & suffering beings, heavy karmas can be softened and future births improved.

1. Digambar–Śvetāmbara

- Both accept the same 8 main karmas and the idea that: - misuse of senses, mind, and speech → birth with defective senses, mind, speech. - Wording and examples differ, but principle is same in both traditions.

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4. What should we do practically?

• Develop strong dayā (compassion) for:

- autistic, manda-buddhi, blind, deaf, dumb, and all suffering beings.

• With body, speech, and mind:

- Do not mock, irritate, or ignore them. - Help them as much as possible with shuddha bhāv (pure intention).

• Daily:

- Do pratikraman for: - any time we laughed at, insulted, or ignored such people, - any past or present mental violence. - Recite Navkar Mantra with kṣamā bhāv (forgiving & asking forgiveness).

This way we stop creating new such karmas, and slowly destroy old ones.

If you wish to read more about karma in simple Jain language, you can refer to this page on JainKnowledge: “Punya and Paap, Karma and its fruits”