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 251

Kundakunda: The Samayasāra 237 however transcendent; nevertheless, the paradox of a 'definition' that transcends all views cannot be totally discounted.
The text continues:
One connected to the true definition (samaya) knows what is said of the two views, but does no more; he takes neither of the alternative views at all, being without (such) alternative views. [Samayasāra 123]
But again samaya could be translated here either with the primary sense of 'true definition' or with the extended sense of the realised or unified self. (It should be noted, however, that this gāthā is capable of providing an accurate description of the pure omniscient self that just knows.) This is also true of Samayasāra 144, upon which the Ātmakhyāti comments:
Whatever is the practice of the cessation of all views through the nonexperience of any point of view, that, indeed, is samayasāra.11
Modern commentators, however, seem to be in no doubt about the principal meaning of 'samayasāra'. Chakravarti writes:
The term samayasära means the essential nature of the Self. This Absolute Ultimate Unity is transcendental in nature. Hence the various appellation based upon different points of view really have no relevancy in that state.12
J.L. Jaini concurs: 'Samayasāra is the pure soul in its essence'. The soul is really above all impurities, and 'one
11 yah khalv akhilanayapakşākṣunnatayā viśrāntasamastavikalpavyāpāraḥ sa samayasāraḥ - Ātmakhyāti on 144 (154). I shall have more to say about these passages and their relation to the rest of the Samayasāra in my discussion of the 'two truths' doctrine.
12 Commentary on Samayasāra 144, p. 101.