Harmless Soul

SR No.: 001196
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: W J Johnson, Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas
Publication Year: 1995
Total Pages: 372
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Principle
File Size: 20 MB

Page 122

108 Harmless Souls characterised merely as śubha and aśubha, i.e. while it refers exclusively to samsāric manifestations of consciousness. However, as will become clear, when the emphasis is switched from samsāric to nirvāṇic, from the impure to a pure state of consciousness, and the latter is viewed as a positive state (as opposed simply to the absence of samsāric states), Kundakunda's upayoga doctrine comes to provide a radically altered perspective on Jaina theory and practice - a possibility latent in the kaşāya doctrine but not activated.
It is possible in this way, and with hindsight, to trace the development of the upayoga doctrine (or at least the stages in which it is presented) in Kundakunda's works. For purposes of simplification, we can point to the passages just quoted as examples of an 'earlier' strand of the doctrine, 62 before a suddha / asuddha distinction is introduced. Nevertheless, the material for the 'later doctrine' is already in place. The eight jñānas and four darśanas (the component parts of upayoga) listed above (pp.105-6) can be divided, from a soteriological perspective, into more (6-8] (aśubha) or less [1-4] (śubha) 'negative' states (darśana [1-3] would be 'neutral'), counterbalanced by a 'positive' state (kevalajñāna and kevaladarśana). As remarked above, the latter is essentially freedom from karmic impediments, so it is not, strictly speaking, a manifestation or application of consciousness at all, rather it is the essence of the jiva unbound. Only śubha and aśubha upayogas are upayogas as such, since only they are the product of bhāvas, i.e. of karma-controlled states. The fact, already mentioned, that kevalajñāna and kevaladarśana are sometimes missing from the list of types of upayoga63 probably reflects the realisation of this, as well as giving a strong indication that this doctrine was modified over a period of time and only
62 Cf. my comments below on Pravacanasāra 2:63. 63 See, for example, TS 2:5.
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