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 145

Kundakunda: The Pravacanasāra
openly entered into or allowed to go beyond implication. Pravacanasara 2.84 confirms that it is by the (internal) state or attitude (bhāva) with which the jiva sees and knows objects that it is stained (rajjadi), and it is this state which is instrumental in bondage. According to the commentary (Tattvadīpikā), this bhāvabandha corresponds to, or represents, snigdha and rūkṣa, i.e. it takes the place of the material instruments of bondage. Thus dravyabandha is controlled or modified by bhavabandha.14 To put it simply, bhāva is what counts in bondage, dravya cannot be bound without it. 15
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At Pravacanasāra 2.85 it is reiterated that whereas bondage between material atoms takes place through touching (sparśa), bondage of the jiva takes place through passion (rāga, literally, the act of colouring); moreover, pudgala and jiva are said to be bound together by 'mutual interpenetration' (annonnassavagāho). As the next gāthā (2.86) makes clear, this last part refers to the standard Jaina doctrine that pudgala and jīva / ātman do not touch in bondage but occupy the same space:
The self has space-points; material bodies enter into those spacepoints. They remain there as fit; they go [or] they are bound.
This takes us to the heart of the problem, succinctly diagnosed by P.S. Jaini when he explains that:
Jainas view the soul's involvement with karma as merely an "association" (ekakṣeträvagaha, literally, occupying the same locus); there is said to be no actual contact between them, since this would imply a soul which was, like karma, material by nature. Just how a non-material thing can in any way interact with a material one is not well clarified. The texts simply suggest that we can infer such an association from our own "experience" of
14
atha punas tenaiva paudgalikam karma badhyata eva, ity eșa bhāvabandhapratyayo dravyabandhaḥ - TD on Pravac. 2:84. 15 Cf. TD introducing 2:87, below.