Concealing And Protecting Stories On Upagahana

Author(s): Luitgard Soni
Publisher: Luitgard Soni
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/269498/1

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Concealing and Protecting. Stories on Upaguhana LUITGARD SONI Upaguhana is one of the eight angas or auxiliaries of samyaktva or samyagdarsana (right belief). The first four of these are freedom from the obstacles of doubt (niksarkita), from craving for the joys of the world (nihkanksita), from repugnance (nirvicikitsa) and from wrong belief (amudha-drsti). The second half of the group is described in positive terms as contributing to the growth of samyaktva: they are qualities that are directed outward, toward the religious community, its status in the society and the duties among the fellow believers in the faith: these are upaguhana or upaguha, sometimes called avaguhana (Pkt.: uvaguhana; protecting Jainism by concealing the faults of one's fellow members), sthiti-karana (strengthening the faith of the fickle-minded ones), prabhavana (propagation of the faith by spectacular good deeds like alms giving, temple building, austerities, promoting learning etc.), and vatsalya (kind assistance to the members of the community). Among all these virtues upaguhana seems to be the most 'political guideline insofar as it highlights the strategy of concealing the faults committed by fellow members of the faith, in order to protect the prestige of one's religion in public. It is CERKSA 1.11-20, Kundakunda's SS 7.228-263, YT 6.5-20 (see HANDIQUI (1968: 258)). The importance of the eight angas is stressed in RKSA 1.21: Without the angas right belief is not able to destroy the continuity of births, just as without the letters a mantra does not efface the pain caused by poison: nanga-hinalan cheffuri darsanan janma-santatime/ na hi mantro karavuno nihani visa-vedanam // BhAr 44: wvaguhana-thidi-karanam vacchalla-pabhavana guna bhanida/ sammatta-visodhie uvaguhana-karava cauro / In his comment to SSi 233: jo siddha-bhatti-jutto uvaguhanago du savva-dhammanam 50 vaguhana-kari sammadishi munevavo II, Amstacandra does not use the word wpaguhana but upabrmhana, which means 'increasing and interprets it as increasing the powers of the self (atma-sakti) by Essays in Jaina Philosophy and Religion Warsaw indolorical Studies Volume 2/Q002pp 227-236

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228 LUITGARD SONI CONCEALING AND PROTECTING. STORIES ON UPAGUHANA 229 the explicitness of this pragmatic demand which is intriguing and especially the way in which it is dealt with didactically in the respective stories. Samantabhadra defines wpaguhana as the removal of the blame originating from ignorant and incompetent ones pertaining to the right path, which in itself is pure. Somadeva, in addition, also stresses the necessity of guarding the reputation of one's religion by suppressing any blemishes which may lower it in the estimation of others. If any fellow member commits an offence by accident or error 'one should conceal it with the wealth of one's own virtues as does a mother that of her children. This protectionism of one's faith is obvious in the following story, where the innocence of the culprit is established by the pious Jaina going against his better knowledge of the facts of the situation and even facing personal offence. It is the Upaguhanakhyanaka, the story of Jinendrabhakta and the thief, in AKP (No. 10): 'In the country of Saurastra, in the city Papaliputra reigned king Yasodhvaja, his queen was Susima. Their son Suvira was a victim of the seven evil passions, and surrounded by many similar men. Once, he got to know that a very unique, priceless cat's-eye gem crowned the threefold umbrella of an idol of Parsvanatha, who stood, heavily protected, on the top of a seven-storeyed building. It belonged to the merchant Jinendrabhakti. He lived in the East, in the region of Gauda, in the city of Tamralipta, The prince Suvira in his greed asked his men: "Who is able to fetch this jewel?" "I'll bring even Indra's crest-gem", the thief Surya roared out. He disguised himself as a ksullaka (novice] and made his way to Tamralipta, causing excitement in villages and towns on account of the mortification of his body. The merchant Jinendrabhakta heard people praise him and he went to see him. They had a conversation and Jinendrabhakti praised him, deeply impressed. He led him to see the Lord Paravanatha and although he seemingly refused, he (the thief Surya) was persuaded and assigned as the guard of the jewel. One day after having consulted the ksullaka the merchant set out for a sea-voyage, left the town and camped outside it. The ksullaka-thief who knew that the servants were busy with the transport, grasped that jewel at midnight and ran off. But due to the lustre of the jewel he was detected on the road and pursued by the watchmen. Since he was not able to escape from them he sought refuge at the merchant's and cried: "Protect me, protect me!" The merchant appeased the shouting of the watchmen, pondered and having realised that the ksullaka was a thief he told the guards for the sake of concealing the scandal) and uplifting the religion: "I myself have told him to bring me the jewel here and it would be improper to proclaim that this great ascetic were a thief." The watchmen then bowed to him and went away. That very night the thief was removed by the merchant. In this way others too, who have the true faith should conceal a fault concerning the religion brought about by a person devoid of knowledge and not endowed with devotion.' In the Yasas-tilaka version the story ends with the solemn declaration of the merchant that he himself had given the jewel to the ascetic, a noble soul who deserved their highest veneration and respect. The most striking feature in this story is indeed that the recommended protection of the true religion is based on an explicit lie, readily uttered by the pious Jaina merchant, and obviously raising questions about double standards. If one were to analyse such didactic stories strictly in terms of models of behaviour, one could easily and, in the numerous cases, often point out obvious contradictions regarding righteous ideals. One could, however, regard the exemplary stories as representing rather a realistic picture of social and communal endeavours and interactions, and that they serve as an education in various facets of successful living. A closer look at the interpretation of asatya, as is hinted at by JAINI (1979: 173 f.), which defines asatya for the layman as a lie for one's own sake, would solve some double-bind situations for the lay satya-vratin. An untruth spoken for the sake of avoiding himsa would then not be harmful to the soul of the liar. By extension, lying for the sake of upholding the true faith would be acceptable, since it prevents damage to the reputation of one's religion. A monk or a nun however, whose satya-vrata is absolute, does not have this choice; he or she would simply have to be silent, even a the risk of somebody's destruction. There are several stories illustrating such instances of keeping silent, even at the expense of the destruction of life. However, I do not know of any scenario involving sadhus or sadhvis set up especially in this case of upaguhana. It seems to be a purely vyavahara theme. cultivating forbearance and the other nine qualities of dharma. The intension of the term upaguhana evident in the stories chosen for this article might allow the extension of the term to upabrihana, the increasing of the powers of the atman of the right believer, but the didactic impact of the stories clearly aims at upaguhana as concealing protecting." * RKSA 1.15: svayam-fuddhasya margasya balasakta-jandirayam vacyatan yad pramarjanti tad vadanty wpaguhanam HANDIQUT (1968: 260)

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130 LUITGARD SONI The following two stories are from the Brhat-katha-kosa of Harisena (BKK). The BKK is a representative collection of 157 stories of varying length, stretching over 12,500 slokas in Sanskrit. It is dated 931 CE. All the stories are based on gathas of the Bhagavati-sradhana (or Mularadhana; BhAr) of Sivarya, an early (fourth or fifth century CE) pro-canonical text of the Digambaras. There are two stories listed under the theme of upaguhana. The first story is about the model behaviour of king Srenika which appears as story number 9 in the BKK, the Srenika-nrpa-kathanaka. The following is a summary of the story with a few selected quotations: King Srenika was highly praised in the assembly of gods as having samyaktva with ksayika, i.e. the true insight due to the destruction of darsana-mohaniya-karma. One of the gods, being envious, wanted to test the truth of this praise. He goes to Srenika's town, disguised as a muni and fishes in the tank with nets. King Srenika, full of devotion, comes to him to pay him the respects due to a Jaina muni. He sees him gathering fish and throwing them in a basket. He immediately descends from his elephant, circumambulates the monk and greets him with reverence. As he stands in front of him bent down in humility, Srenika tells him: 'Someone who follows the mendicant path to liberation ought not kill fish, since that increases the course of existences (samsrti). Therefore give me your net, I'll collect the fish for you in the basket and you, O sadhu, keep away!' Without a word the ascetic gives the net to the king who throws the net in the lake. At this the muni prevents him telling him that he did not need more fish and lauding him as a good Jaina he gives him leave. The king returns home with the muni, the net and the fish. After this incident criticism is voiced among Srenika's vassals. They say: 'How can the muni catch fish and how can the king be so foolish as to worship him? And how can our king, who actually rules over us follow the orders of the monk?' King Srenika hears this criticism directed against Jaina principles (jina-sasana-dusana) and thinks of teaching them a lesson. He smears stinking dirt and excrement on the letters with the royal edicts which the vassals have to receive. They hold the stinking leaves reverentially to their foreheads as if they were smelling of flowers. The king then asks them, how they could act in this way and they can only answer that with anything given by the king's grace there is no question of either dirt or kumkum. Srenika then draws the analogy by saying: just as you accept with devotion all that is given by me, even though it might be foul smelling, so did 1, with CONCEALING AND PROTECTING. STORIES ON UPAGUHANA devotion to the Jina, make my reverence to the fish catcher who looked like a muni. At these words of the king the fisherman reveals himself as a heavenly being, explains the test-situation and praises and rewards Srenika highly." 231 In this story upaguhana has no connotation of concealing anything, on the contrary, everything is highly public. It is quite spectacular that the king venerates a fishing muni and then himself undertakes to perform the unroyal and, as a Jaina, even the sinful act of fishing. The king does it in a demonstrative manner, acting out the model relation between a layman and a king towards a monk. As a layman he makes good for the misbehaviour of the monk by taking the sin upon himself, albeit not without pointing out the monk's breach of behaviour and reminding him of his ascetic duties. This is in keeping with the duty of lay-people, namely, to support the ideals of the ascetics and to make it possible for them to live up to and according to theses ideals. As a king he fulfils his duty of protecting the religious principles by using his authority to eradicate the criticism against himself as a pious Jaina and against the sweeping criticism against the apparently bad monk, who actually cannot pollute the true religion taught by the Jina. Finally, the blame on the religion and the ascetic is lifted by revealing that the whole affair was merely orchestrated to test Srepika's righteousness and so there "Haribhadrasuri gives the theme of this story in two lines in his Vrtti no. 5 to the nirvukti of DVS 3 (p. 91) as an example for upaguhana: 'A God, doubting Srenika's firmness of faith, takes the form of a novice catching fish; Srenika hinders him.' Cf. also related passages in the Manipati-carita (MPC) by an anonymous author (eighth or ninth century) and the one by Haribhadra (twelfth century) (MPCH), translated by R. WILLIAMS (1959). The term upaguhana, however, is not explicitly mentioned in these texts, but the underlying message is 'to prevent a scandal of the Jina's teaching' as will be seen below (footnote 9). Stanzas 415-416 of MPC read: 'Suddenly in a pond at the edge of the road to the city he saw an acolyte catching fish and had him called to his presence, saying: "I will give you something to make up for this, cease from this evil task. Stanzas 124-128 of the MPCH: At a fitting time the king set out for his own city, and by a divine illusion beheld a muni catching fish. The king said: "What are you doing?" The muni replied: "Let it be evident to you." So saying he cast his net into the water for fish. The king said: "What is this on your lap?" The other replied: "The monk's broom." When the king asked: "What is achieved by this?", the muni replied: "Jivas are preserved." "Then why do you kill fish?" asked the king. The muni replied: "In the bazaar I shall buy a blanket with them." The king indicated the reason for not taking life and bestowed a blanket on him."

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232 LUITGARD SONI never was, in fact, a really bad monk-a device which is in itself an upaguhana, the protection of the religion by proving the purity of its members." The other story from the BKK illustrating upaguhana is a peculiar contribution to the fact of the nudity of Digambara monks and their male, biophysical conditioning. In the context of the debate on stri-moksa male nudity is a prerequisite for perfect mendicancy and liberation. Women are denied the possibility of final liberation, because they cannot abandon their clothing. But unlike the categorical prohibition of female nudity under the pretext of her biophysical and social unfitness, male nudity demands protection, if needed. In the following story the lay woman Celana fulfils this religious virtue. The term upaguhana in this story is indeed to be understood as both, concealing and protecting. It is story number 8 in BKK, called the Celana-maha-devi-kathanaka." This is a summary of it: Prince Vaisakha was newly married when his childhood friend, now a monk, came to his house for alms. As soon as the prince saw him, he was intensely filled with joy and devotion and when it was time for the monk to leave, the prince decided to go away with him and also became a monk. His abandoned wife realised that he had become a Jaina monk practising austerities. She practised false beliefs and when she died she became a vyantari. She still bore the grudge against her former husband for abandoning her and hence decided to trouble him during his austerities. When it was time for the solitary monk, weak from a month-long fast, to take some food, she caused him to have an erection. This happened when he came into Celana's courtyard to break his fast. 'Celana, filled with devotion, realised that the monk was in trouble and she concealed him from public view with a piece of cloth, concerned that people would speak ill of him.' The monk then finished his meal and continued his wanderings and his austerities. He eventually attained omniscience and was worshipped by gods and men. Celana also went to bow down to the now omniscient one. There in the assembly of gods and men she asked him why he was subjected In another context Somadeva says that a religion cannot be sullied by the misdemeanour of a weakling among its adherents, just as the ocean does not become foul on account of a frog dying in its waters (HANDIQUI (1968: 261)). *The story has been published and translated by GRANOFF (1989: 57-60). I acknowledge here my sincere gratitude to Phyllis Granoff for having introduced me to Jaina narratives and for her continuous generosity and encouragement. CONCEALING AND PROTECTING. STORIES ON UPAGUHANA to such a torment. The omniscient one explained how it was that his abandoned wife had tormented him and how grateful he was that she, Celana, firm in her right belief, had protected him. 233 The story ends in the stereotyped way with the gods and people being astonished and worshipping the monk who finally attained liberation. And then the teaching is added: 'Just as Celana protected this monk, so should others protect all those who practice the true religion.' One has to note in this story that the upaguhana here does not refer to any breach of conduct on the part of the monk, as in the previous case of the fishing monk. The monkhood in that case was cleansed by revealing the bad monk as just a divine delusion. Here in the Celana story the monk practises the true religion and is actually faultless, since abandoning his wife in order to became a mendicant would only prove that he has taken up the right path. Contrary to the other story, the monk here he is a victim of the wrath of his intolerant wife. In this way again, there is no blemish on monkhood: it is not his lack of control or weakness which causes him the embarrassment, but the curse of a vyantari. The resolute action of the laywoman and her concern pertains rather to preventing public contempt and discredit of the religion than to any embarrassment of the persons involved in the scene. From all the three stories above it becomes clear that upaguhana is not the protection of an individual but of the reputation of the Jaina religion. A corresponding predicament, namely the pregnancy of nuns, also comes within the context of upaguhana? Cf. footnote 6 above. Haribhadrasuri relates to this theme (Vrtti no. 5 to Niryukti 188 of DVS 3) as the second example for upaguhana: 'A God, doubting Srenika's firmness of faith... meets him in form of a pregnant nun. He takes her to the inner apartment and himself takes care of the delivery so that no one learns of it. The God then reveals himself in his true form and lauds him: "O Srenika! You have reached the purpose of existence, since you have such devotion to the teaching." Cf. also MPC 417-418: 'Then as he entered the city he saw a Jaina nun big with child roaming about the market and, calling her, he took her to his house. From fear of opprobrium falling on the Jaina religion he himself took care of her giving her employment in his household...; MPC 128-129: ...Then as he was going along he saw in the bazaar a female sadhu pregnant. Preventing scandal to the Jina's teaching, his mind undeviatingly fixed on the sacred law, the king kept her in secret and harboured her until the day of birth. It is noteworthy that upaguhana is not mentioned, but the act of protecting the religion from scandal or critique as an essential feature of the right believer corresponds to the doctrinal concept.

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234 LUITGARD SONI CONCEALING AND PROTECTING. STORIES ON UPAGUHANA 235 The following instance is from Harisena's BKK, story number 97, Nila-lohitakathanaka, as part of a longer story of rebirths and is summarised here. The term avaguhana is explicitly mentioned in the respective context. The nun, a novice, is Jyesta who becomes pregnant because of her association with a mini (Satyaki). Her son Rudra is abandoned in a cave and then retrieved. delivery could take place in the house of a relative. And, further, they orchestrated the hiding and finding of the child, who thus was not known to be the son of Jyesta but a foundling being taken care of by friendly people. From the examples of the stories referred to above the following points can be drawn as the main features of upaguhana: 1. Upaguhana is the protection of the reputation of the Jaina religion; 2. For this purpose it is proper for laypersons to hide the faults committed by members of the religious community by concealing facts or even lying or to counteract misbehaviour publicly; 3. Upaguhana is not implemented for the sake of an individual but for the status of the Jaina community in society. Jyesta was one of the seven daughters of king Cetaka and she was the Sister of Celana who was abducted by Abhayakumara, son and counsellor of king Srenika of Rajagsha, to become the wife of king Srenika. Jyesta was supposed to accompany her sister, but she was left behind by her jealous sister by means of a trick: when leaving the town at night Celana sent her back to the palace to fetch a necklace. Jyesta then arrived with the necklace at the appointed place but searched in vain for her sister. She was afraid to return to her father's house and in her feeling of being destitute she entered a retreat of nuns and resorted to Jaina tapas. Once the nuns heard that the muni Satyaki (Jyest's husband in a former life) was practising tapas on a mountain near Rajagrha and went up to him to bow down to him. On the way down, the floods of an unscasonal rainstorm made the nun Jyesta seek shelter in a cave (guha). Satyaki had to interrupt his yoga, disturbed by the water, and he too entered the cave. When they beheld each other there in the cave their minds were filled with anorous emotions and they united in love. Satyaki then went to his guru, confessed and undertook the prescribed penance. Jyesta on her part went to her superior and confessed. The nun accepted her with composure and entrusted her into the care of her sister Celana in Srenika's palace. There she gave birth to a heavenly shining boy. Abhayadeva (Abhayakumara) took the newly born boy away and abandoned him in a cave. On account of a dream which Celana had the king Srenika went to this cave, found the boy and entrusted him to the care of his wife who then educated him with her own son. In this place the narration is interrupted by the reflection: (stanza 69): "Together with Abhayakumara the conscientious Celana, who was finn in the right belief, performed the concealment (avaguhana) of Jyesta. This seems to be the didactic impact of this section of this dharmakatha. There is no condemnation of the breach of the monastic vows. The conduct of the monk and the nun is a matter of confession and atonement and is dealt with internally. The duty of householders, however, is to ward off any blemish in public. They give shelter to the pregnant woman, something that would be quite natural since the

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236 LUITGARD SONI BIBLIOGRAPHY AKP BhAr BKK DVS GRANOFF 1989 HANDIQUI 1968 = Prabhacandra: Sradhanu-katha-prabhanda or Katha-kosa. Ed. by A.N. Upadhye. D. Jaina Grunthamala 55, Bharatiya Jnanapitha Manikacandra, New Delhi 1974. = Sivarya: Bhagavati Aradhana (Mularadhana). Hiralala Khusalachanda Dosi, Phaltan 1990. = Harisena: Brhat-katha-kosa. Brhat Kathakosa of Acharya Harisena, ed. by A.N. Upadhye, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay 1943. = Dasa-vaikalika-sutra, ed. with the Niryukti and Haribhadrasuri's Vytti. Agamasuttani (satikum) vol. 27, Agama Sradhana Kendra, Ahmedabad 2000. = Granoff, Phyllis: The Forest of Thieves and the Magic Garden: An Anthology of Medieval Jain Stories. Penguin Classics, London 1989. =Handiqui, Krishna Kanta: Yasastilaka and Indian Culture or Somadeva's Yasastilaka and Aspects of Jainism and Indian Thought and Culture in the Tenth Century. Jaina Samskriti Samrakshaka Sangha, Sholapur 1968. [First edition: Jivaraja Jaina Granthamala 2, Sholapur 1949). = Jaini, Padmanabh S.: The Jaina Path of Purification. University of California Press, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London 1979. [Reprinted: Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1998). = Kundakunda: Samaya-sara, Srimad Rajacandra Asrama, Agasa 1997. [First edition: 1975). = Manipati-carita. See: WILLIAMS (1959). = Haribhadra: Manipati-carita. See: WILLIAMS (1959). = Samantabhadra: Ratna-karanda-sravakacara. Sri Ratnakaranda Sravakacara, Sri Madhyaksetriya Mumuksu 'Mandala Sangha, Sagara (MP) 1985. [First edition: 1983). = Somadeva: Yasas-tilaka. See: HANDIQUI (1968). = Williams, Richard (ed.): Two Prakrit Versions of the Manipati Carita, Luzac and Co., Bristol 1959. JAIN 1979 Ssa MPC MPCH RKSA YT WILLIAMS 1959