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 187

Kundakunda: The Pravacanasāra 173 Amrtacandra claims that Kundakunda teaches that the purpose of rejecting upadhi is in fact to reject internal cheda. Moreover, since internal cheda is no different from aśuddhopayoga, then upadhi is another name for aśuddhopayoga; so it is really the latter, an impure state of consciousness, which is the instrument of bondage. 104
The gāthā (3:20) commented on here reads:
If there is no renunciation (absolutely) free from (any) expectation, the monk cannot have the purification of mind; how can he effect the destruction of karma, when he is impure in mind?105
In other words, purity of mind and renunciation of worldly-objects through an attitude of indifference are one and the same thing. For, if ņiravekkho / nirapeksa is taken to be the form of cāgo / tyāga, then the emphasis falls, not upon physical renunciation, but upon an attitude of indifference, an attitude which is the same thing as purity of mind. For the monk who does not have this purity of mind, how, it is asked in the next gāthā (3:21), can he be free from mucchā / mūrcchā, ārambha / ārambha, and asamjama / asamyama (delusion, physical harm from worldly activities, and lack of control), and how, being attached to paradravya ('other substance'), i.e. the external world, the ajīva, can he ever realise (lit. gain) himself?106 And, consequently, in the Tattvadīpikā, upadhi is named as
104 tato 'suddhopayogasyāntarangachedasya pratiședham prayojanam apeksyopadher vidhiyamānah pratisedho 'ntarangachedapratişedha eva syāt - TD on Pravac. 3:20.
105 Upadhye's trans.; niravekkha / nirapekṣa = 'indifferent to worldly objects'; āsaya / āśaya = 'heart', 'mind', 'resting-place'. The construction is odd here. The sense seems to require nirūvekkhe cāge, locative absolute. Faddegon's rendering of Prākrit āsaya as Sanskrit āsrava, rather than āśaya (p.165], makes no real sense: asrava is by definition impure or, at best, neutral, whereas, in the co perfectly intelligible.
106 tadha paradavvammi rado kadham appāņam pasādhayadi - Pravac. 3:21.