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Şaḍāvasyakas
The word avasyaka comes from avaśa, which means independence from kaşayas. A monk who depends on others cannot, therefore, be said to have performed avasyaka karma.2 The traditional six avasyakas as enumerated in Mülācāra and Uttaradhyayana are as follows :
1. Sāmāyika
2.
Caturvimŝatistava
3. Vandanā
4.
Pratikramana
5. Pratyakhyāna
6. Kayotsarga.3
Kundakunda gives a slightly different list:
1. Pratikramaṇa
2. Pratyakhyāna 3. Alocană
4. Prayaścitta 5.
Paramasamādhi Paramabhakti.4
6.
It seems that no later author followed the tradition of Kundakunda
Sāmāyika: Sāmāyika means equanimity of mind. Mūlācāra defines it thus: Sāmāyika is equanimity in life and death, profit and loss, union and separation, relative and enemy, and happiness and misery.5
It further adds that framana is one who is equally disposed towards one's own and others, who regards every woman as his mother and is equanimous in favourable and unfavourable circumstances. It is thus that he is said to perform sāmāyika.
Jaina Ethics
Niyamasara says, "What is the good of residing in forest, mortification of body, observance of various fasts, study of
1. Niyamasara, 142.
Also Mülācāra, 7.14; Anāgāradharmāmṛta, 8.16.
2. Niyamasāra, 143.
3. Mülācāra, 7.15. Also Uttaradhyayana 26, 2-4. Introduction to Pravacanasära, p. XLII.
4.
5. Mülācāra, 1.23.
6. Ibid., 7.20.
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