Answer

No. In Jain Dharma, an Arhat does not incur karma, even if an animal’s death occurs in relation to the Arhat’s body or presence.

Explanation

An Arhat is a perfected living being who has destroyed the four ghāti karmas:

• Jñānāvaraṇīya karma – knowledge-obscuring karma
• Darśanāvaraṇīya karma – perception-obscuring karma
• Mohanīya karma – deluding karma
• Antarāya karma – obstructive karma

Because mohanīya karma is destroyed, an Arhat has no passion, attachment, hatred, intention to harm, carelessness, or violence in thought.

In Jainism, karmic bondage is not caused merely by a physical event. It depends deeply on:

• intention,
• passion,
• attachment or aversion,
• carelessness,
• inner impurity of the soul.

An Arhat is completely free from these inner causes of bondage. Therefore, an Arhat does not bind new karma.

Spiritual Understanding

From the Jain viewpoint, true violence is not only external harm; it is rooted in kaṣāya—anger, pride, deceit, greed, attachment, and aversion.

An ordinary person may bind karma even through small acts if they are done with passion or negligence. But an Arhat has perfect awareness and complete purity of soul. Therefore, there is no karmic bondage.

However, this should not be misunderstood as permission for ordinary people to be careless. For non-omniscient beings, harming living beings is a serious cause of karmic bondage.

Takeaway

An Arhat does not incur karma because an Arhat has no passions, no delusion, no harmful intention, and no capacity to bind new karma. In Jain Dharma, karma is bound through inner impurity, and an Arhat is completely free from it.