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 232

218 Harmless Souls
not harming beings, etc., and in not attending to the body. 115
Then he adds:
The Jaina mark, which is the cause of the stoppage of rebirths, consists in being free from action based on delusion, in being endowed with purity of manifestation of consciousness and purity of activity, and in being independent of the other (everything not
self).116
Considering 3:5 first, the expression 'possessing the form in which one is born' (jadhajādarūvajādam) occurs in a slightly different formulation in the previous gāthā (3:4), as jadhajādarūvadharo, 'wearing a form similar to that in which he is born'.117 Upadhye explains that this means that the person wishing to be an ascetic (the subject of these gāthās) 'should give up everything including clothes and remain naked; this is the excellent type of Jaina asceticism'.118 In other words, this is equivalent to the English colloquial expression 'wearing one's birthday suit', meaning going completely naked (which, of course, is the most obvious characteristic of the Digambara ascetic).
The other components of 3:5 are self-explanatory, except for śuddha. The Tattvadīpikā describes this 'purity' in material terms, as being due to the negation of 'possessing anything'.119 As we have seen, in the Sarvārthasiddhi (on Tattvārtha Sūtra 9:6) 'purity' (sauca) is glossed as 'freedom from greed' (parigraha I lobha), the defining characteristic of the householder's way of life; 120 it initiates himsā and causes bondage. In short, purity both
115 Trans. after Upadhye p. 25; see ibid. p. 25 fn. 2, on pratikarma, which he takes as a-pari-karma, a reading followed in this translation.
116 Translation after Upadhye p. 25. 117 Upadhye's translation. 118 Upadhye p. 25 fn. 1. 119 Translation by Faddegon p. 157, of sakimcanatva. 120 See above, p. 76ff..