1. Type of bondage – coating or mixing?

In Jain philosophy (including in texts like Karma Granth), the bondage of karma to the soul is like a coating that sticks, not like milk and water mixing.

• Soul (jiva) and karma pudgal (karmic matter) are two completely separate substances.
• At the time of bandha, karmic particles come into contact with the soul and stick to it like dust to oily skin.
• They never become one single substance like milk mixed with water; they always remain distinct dravyas (substances) in contact (this relation is called samyoga, not an inseparable union).

So, answer to (1): > Karma bondage is of the “sticking/coating” type, not an inseparable mixing like milk and water.

You can read a simple explanation of karma-bandh here:

1. From time perspective – which category?

The four categories you listed are:

• Saadi–saant – has a beginning and has an end
• Saadi–anant – has a beginning but no end
• Anaadi–saant – no beginning, but has an end
• Anaadi–anant – no beginning and no end

For karma-bandha of a soul in samsara, Jain siddhānta says:

• The cycle of bondage of soul and karma is beginningless – there is no first moment when the jiva started taking karma. This is called anaadi.
• But if/when that soul attains moksha, all karmic bondage definitely ends forever. So from the standpoint of the soul that becomes siddha, bondage is saant (it ends).

So, for a soul wandering in samsara, the relationship of bondage between jiva and karma is described as:

> Anaadi–saant – beginningless, but having an end at moksha.

To be more precise:

• Each particular karma (one specific bondage of one specific karma-pradesh) has saadi–saant nature: it starts at the moment of bondage and ends at its udaya/nirjarā.
• But the general condition that the jiva is bound by some karmas is anaadi–saant: no beginning in the infinite past, yet it can end permanently by attaining kevaljnān and then moksha.

Both Digambar and Shvetambar accept this basic time-view of bondage:

• Samsara and karmic bondage are anaadi (beginningless),
• But not anant for the liberated soul – they end at moksha.