The Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha Part 7

Others lay down a different set of _tattvas_ from the two mentioned above, _jiva_ and _ajiva_; they hold that there are five _astikayas_ or categories,--_jiva_, _akasa_, _dharma_, _adharma_, and _pudgala_.

To all these five we can apply the idea of "existence" (_asti_),[67]

as connected with the three divisions of time, and we can similarly apply the idea of "body" (_kaya_),[68] from their occupying several parts of s.p.a.ce.

The _jivas_ (souls) are divided into two, the "mundane" and the "released." The "mundane" pa.s.s from birth to birth; and these are also divided into two, as those possessing an internal sense (_samanaska_), and those dest.i.tute of it (_amanaska_). The former possesses _sa?jna_, _i.e._, the power of apprehension, talking, acting, and receiving instruction; the latter are those without this power. These latter are also divided into two, as "locomotive" (_trasa_), or "immovable"

(_sthavara_).

The "locomotive" are those possessing at least two senses [touch and taste], as sh.e.l.l-fish, worms, &c., and are thus of four kinds [as possessing two, three, four, or five senses]; the "immovable" are earth, water, fire, air, and trees.[69] But here a distinction must be made. The dust of the road is properly "earth," but bricks, &c., are aggregated "bodies of earth," and that soul by whom this body is appropriated becomes "earthen-bodied," and that soul which will hereafter appropriate it is the "earth-soul." The same four divisions must also be applied to the others, water, &c. Now the souls which have appropriated or will appropriate the earth, &c., as their bodies, are reckoned as "immovable;" but earth, &c., and the "bodies of earth," &c., are not so reckoned, because they are inanimate.[70]

These other immovable things, and such as only possess the one sense of touch, are considered as "released," since they are incapable of pa.s.sing into any other state of existence.

_Dharma_, _adharma_, and _akasa_ are singular categories [and not generic], and they have not the attribute of "action," but they are the causes of a substance's change of place.

_Dharma_, "merit," and _adharma_, "demerit," are well known. They a.s.sist souls in progressing or remaining stationary in the universally extended[71] sky [or ether] characterised by light, and also called Lokakasa; hence the presence of the category "merit" is to be inferred from progress, that of "demerit" from stationariness. The effect of _akasa_ is seen when one thing enters into the s.p.a.ce previously occupied by another.

_Pudgala_, "body," possesses touch, taste, and colour. Bodies are of two kinds, atomic and compound. Atoms cannot be enjoyed;[72] the compounds are the binary and other combinations. Atoms are produced by the separation of these binary and other compounds, while these arise from the conjunction of atoms. Compounds sometimes arise from separation and conjunction [combined]; hence they are called _pudgalas_, because they "fill" (_pur_), and "dissolve" (_gal_).

Although "time" is not properly an _astikaya_, because it does not occupy many separate parts of s.p.a.ce [as mentioned in the definition], still it is a _dravya_ [or _tattva_], as the definition will hold; "substance" (_dravya_) possesses "qualities and action."[73] Qualities reside in substance but do not themselves possess qualities, as the general qualities, knowledge, &c., of the _jiva_, form, &c., of the body, and the power of causing progress, stationariness, and motion into a place previously occupied, in the case respectively of "merit,"

"demerit," and _akasa_. "Action" (_paryaya_) has thus been defined; the actions (_paryaya?_) of a substance are, as has been said, its existence, its production, its being what it is, its development, its course to the end, as, _e.g._, in the _jiva_, the knowledge of objects, as of a jar, &c., happiness, pain, &c.; in the _pudgala_, the lump of clay, the jar, &c.; in merit and demerit, the special functions of progress, &c. Thus there are six substances or _tattvas_ [_i.e._, the five above mentioned and "time"].

Others reckon the _tattvas_ as seven, as has been said--

"The _tattvas_ are _jiva_, _ajiva_, _asrava_, _bandha_, _sa?vara_, _nirjara_, and _moksha_." _Jiva_ and _ajiva_ have been already described.

_asrava_ is described as the movement of the soul called _yoga_,[74]

through its partic.i.p.ation in the movement of its various bodies, _audarika_, &c. As a door opening into the water is called _asrava_, because it causes the stream to descend through it,[75] so this _yoga_ is called _asrava_, because by it as by a pipe actions and their consequences flow in upon the soul. Or, as a wet garment collects the dust brought to it from every side by the wind, so the soul, wet with previous sins, collects, by its manifold points of contact with the body, the actions which are brought to it by _yoga_. Or as, when water is thrown on a heated lump of iron, the iron absorbs the water altogether, so the _jiva_, heated by previous sins, receives from every side the actions which are brought by _yoga_. _Kashaya_ ("sin," "defilement") is so called because it "hurts"

(_kash_) the soul by leading it into evil states; it comprises anger, pride, delusion, and l.u.s.t. _asrava_ is twofold, as good or evil. Thus abstaining from doing injury is a good _yoga_ of the body; speaking what is true, measured, and profitable is a good _yoga_ of the speech.

These various subdivisions of _asrava_ have been described at length in several _Sutras_. "_asrava_ is the impulse to action with body, speech, or mind, and it is good or evil as it produces merit or demerit," &c. Others, however, explain it thus:--"_asrava_ is the action of the senses which impels the soul towards external objects; the light of the soul, coming in contact with external objects by means of the senses, becomes developed as the knowledge of form, &c."[76]

_Bandha_, "bondage," is when the soul, by the influence of "false intuition," "non-indifference," "carelessness," and "sin" (_kashaya_), and also by the force of _yoga_, a.s.sumes various bodies occupying many parts of s.p.a.ce, which enter into its own subtile body, and which are suited to the bond of its previous actions. As has been said--

"Through the influence of sin the individual soul a.s.sumes bodies suitable to its past actions, this is, 'bondage.'"

In this quotation the word "sin" (_kashaya_) is used to include the other three causes of bondage as well as that properly so termed.

Vachakacharya has thus enumerated the causes of bondage: "The causes of bondage are false intuition, non-indifference, carelessness, and sin."

(_a_) "False intuition" is twofold,--either innate from one's natural character, as when one disbelieves Jaina doctrines from the influence of former evil actions, irrespectively of another's teaching,--or derived, when learned by another's teaching.

(_b_) "Non-indifference" is the non-restraint of the five senses, and the internal organ from the set of six, earth, &c.

(_c_) "Carelessness" (_pramada_) is a want of effort to practise the five kinds of _samiti_, _gupti_, &c.

(_d_) "Sin" consists of anger, &c. Here we must make the distinction that the four things, false intuition, &c., cause those kinds of bondage called _sthiti_ and _anubhava_; _yoga_ [or _asrava_] causes those kinds called _prak?iti_ and _pradesa_.

"Bondage" is fourfold, as has been said: "_Prak?iti_, _sthiti_, _anubhava_, and _pradesa_ are its four kinds."

1. _Prak?iti_ means "the natural qualities," as bitterness or sweetness in the vimba plant or mola.s.ses. This may be subdivided into eight _mula-prak?itis_.[77]

Thus obstructions (_avara?a_)[78] cloud the knowledge and intuition, as a cloud obscures the sun or a shade the lamp. This is (_a_) _jnanavara?a_, or (_b_) _darsanavara?a_. (_c_) An object recognised as simultaneously existing or non-existing produces mingled pleasure and pain, as licking honey from a sword's edge,--this is _vedaniya_. (_d_) A delusion (_mohaniya_) in intuition produces want of faith in the Jaina categories, like a.s.sociation with the wicked; delusion in conduct produces want of self-restraint, like intoxication. (_e_) _ayus_ produces the bond of body, like a snare.[79] (_f_) _Naman_, or "the name," produces various individual appellations, as a painter paints his different pictures. (_g_) _Gotra_ produces the idea of n.o.ble and ign.o.ble, as the potter fashions his pots. (_h_) _Antaraya_ produces obstacles to liberality, &c., as the treasurer hinders the king by considerations of economy.

Thus is the _prak?iti-bandha_ eightfold, being denominated as the eight _mula-prak?itis_, with subdivisions according to the different actions of the various subject-matter.

And thus has Umaswati-vachakacharya[80] declared: "The first kind of _bandha_ consists of obstructions of the knowledge and the intuition, _vedaniya_, _mohaniya_, _ayus_, _naman_, _gotra_, and _antaraya_;" and he has also reckoned up the respective subdivisions of each as five, nine, twenty-eight, four, two, forty, two, and fifteen. All this has been explained at full length in the _Vidyananda_ and other works, and here is omitted through fear of prolixity.

2. _Sthiti._ As the milk of the goat, cow, buffalo, &c., have continued unswerving from their sweet nature for so long a period, so the first three _mula-prak?itis_, _jnanavara?a_, &c., and the last, _antaraya_, have not swerved from their respective natures even through the period described in the words, "_sthiti_ lasts beyonds crores of crores of periods of time measured by thirty _sagaropamas_."[81] This continuance is _sthiti_.

3. _Anubhava._ As in the milk of goats, cows, buffaloes, &c., there exists, by its rich or poor nature, a special capacity for producing[82] its several effects, so in the different material bodies produced by our actions there exists a special capacity (_anubhava_) for producing their respective effects.

4. _Pradesa._ The _bandha_ called _pradesa_ is the entrance into the different parts of the soul by the ma.s.ses, made up of an endless number of parts, of the various bodies which are developed by the consequences of actions.

_Sa?vara_ is the stopping of _asrava_--that by which the influence of past actions (_karman_) is stopped from entering into the soul. It is divided into _gupti_, _samiti_, &c. _Gupti_ is the withdrawal of the soul from that "impulse" (_yoga_) which causes mundane existence,--it is threefold, as relating to body, speech, or mind. _Samiti_ is the acting so as to avoid injury to all living beings. This is divided into five kinds, as _irya_,[83] _bhasha_, &c., as has been explained by Hemachandra.

1. "In a public highway, kissed by the sun's rays, to walk circ.u.mspectly so as to avoid injuring living beings, this the good call _irya_.

2. "Let him practise[84] a measured utterance in his intercourse with all people; this is called _bhasha-samiti_, dear to the restrainers of speech.

3. "The food which the sage takes, ever free from the forty-two faults which may accrue to alms, is called the _esha?a-samiti_.[85]

4. "Carefully looking at it and carefully seating himself upon it, let him take a seat, &c., set it down, and meditate,--this is called the _adana-samiti_.

5. "That the good man should carefully perform his bodily evacuations in a spot free from all living creatures,[86]--this is the _utsarga-samiti_.[87] Hence _samvara_ has been etymologically a.n.a.lysed as that which closes (_sam_ + _v?i?oti_) the door of the stream of _asrava_,[88] as has been said by the learned, '_asrava_ is the cause of mundane existence, _sa?vara_ is the cause of liberation;[89] this is the arhat doctrine in a handful; all else is only the amplification of this.'"

_Nirjara_ is the causing the fruit of past actions to decay by self-mortification, &c.; it destroys by the body the merit and demerit of all the previously performed actions, and the resulting happiness and misery; "self-mortification" means the plucking out of the hair, &c. This _nirjara_ is twofold,[90] "temporary" (_yathakala_) and ancillary (_aupakrama?ika_). It is "temporary" as when a desire is dormant in consequence of the action having produced its fruit, and at that particular time, from this completion of the object aimed at, _nirjara_ arises, being caused by the consumption of the desire, &c.

But when, by the force of asceticism, the sage turns all actions into means for attaining his end (liberation), this is the _nirjara_ of actions. Thus it has been said: "From the decaying of the actions which are the seeds of mundane existence, _nirjara_ arises, which is twofold, _sakama_ and _akama_. That called _sakama_ belongs to ascetics, the _akama_ to other embodied spirits."[91]

_Moksha._ Since at the moment of its attainment there is an entire absence of all future actions, as all the causes of bondage (false perception, &c.) are stopped,[92] and since all past actions are abolished in the presence of the causes of _nirjara_, there arises the absolute release from all actions,--this is _moksha_; as it has been said: "_Moksha_ is the absolute release from all actions by the decay (_nirjara_) of the causes of bondage and of existence."

Then the soul rises upward to the end of the world. As a potter's wheel, whirled by the stick and hands, moves on even after these have stopped, until the impulse is exhausted, so the previous repeated contemplations of the embodied soul for the attainment of _moksha_ exert their influence even after they have ceased, and bear the soul onward to the end of the world; or, as the gourd, encased with clay, sinks in the water, but rises to the surface when freed from its enc.u.mbrance, so the soul, delivered from works, rises upward by its isolation,[93] from the bursting of its bonds like the elastic seed of the castor-oil plant, or by its own native tendency like the flame.

"Bondage" is the condition of being unseparated, with a mutual interpenetration of parts [between the soul and the body]; _sa?ga_ is merely mutual contact. This has been declared as follows:--

"[Liberation] is unhindered, from the continuance of former impulses, from the absence of _sa?ga_, from the cutting of all bonds, and from the natural development of the soul's own powers of motion, like the potter's wheel, the gourd with its clay removed, the seed of the castor-oil plant, or the flame of fire."

Hence they recite a sloka:--

"However often they go away, the planets return, the sun, moon, and the rest;

"But never to this day have returned any who have gone to alokakasa."

Others hold _moksha_ to be the abiding in the highest regions, the soul being absorbed in bliss, with its knowledge unhindered and itself untainted by any pain or impression thereof.

Others hold nine _tattwas_, adding "merit" and "demerit" to the foregoing seven,--these two being the causes of pleasure and pain.

This has been declared in the _Siddhanta_, "_Jiva_, _ajiva_, _pu?ya_, _papa_, _asrava_, _sa?vara_, _nirjara?a_, _bandha_, and _moksha_, are the nine _tattwas_." As our object is only a summary, we desist here.

Here the Jainas everywhere introduce their favourite logic called the _sapta-bha?gi-naya_,[94] or the system of the seven paralogisms, "may be, it is," "may be, it is not," "may be, it is and it is not," "may be, it is not predicable," "may be, it is, and yet not predicable,"

"may be, it is not, and not predicable," "may be, it is and it is not, and not predicable." All this Anantavirya has thus laid down:--

1. "When you wish to establish a thing, the proper course is to say 'may be, it is;' when you wish to deny it, 'may be, it is not.'

2. "When you desire to establish each in turn, let your procedure likewise embrace both; when you wish to establish both at once, let it be declared 'indescribable' from the impossibility to describe it.

3. "The fifth process is enjoined when you wish to establish the first as well as its indescribableness; when the second as well as its indescribableness, the occasion for the sixth process arises.