Jain Agam Sahitya

SR No.: 001431
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: K R Chandra
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1992
Total Pages: 330
Language: Prakrit, Hindi, Enlgish, Gujarati
Classification: Book_Devnagari, Philosophy, & agam_related_articles
File Size: 18 MB

Page 239

Moksopāya In Jain..... Upanisads
215
scrutiny does reveal in them a silent imperceptible revolution (-not an open revolt-), gradually denying importance to the external intricacies of vedic rituals and replacing them by mental meditations { upāsanās ), aimed at increasing awareness of the inner significance and essence of experienced phenomena. (vide Wadhwani : 1985-6).
We shall here restrict ourselves to similarities concerning bondage and the means of liberation ( and avoid other details, to avoid undue lengih ).
Bondage : In a vein somewhat similar to the Jaina concept of mithyatva we find ignorance being regarded the cause of the soul's subjection to an embodied state and to repeated death (ch. 8.3.2; BA. 4.4.19; Katho. 4.11; 5.14 )... Delusion ( along with powerlessness ) is blamed for the suffering of the soul in svet. 4.7 ( aniśayā focati muhyamānaḥ). This is normally connected with moha as the characteristic of tamoguna in Sārkhva thought. but it can also have a remote connection with the effect of mohaniya karma in jainism.
BA. 4.4. 2-6 tell us that at ihe time of death, the soul is acco. panied hy the life-breath, the cognitive organs (including mind) and its deeds; Katho. 5.7 also talks of souls going to new abodes as per their deeds and their knowledge (cf. here svet. 4.6-7; 5.7-12). While Sankhya and Vedanta developed these ideas into the concept of a linga-sarira, they can also be compared with the Jaina concept of a teya and kammaga body accompanying the soul at death... And what is more important, while Jaina canons (Samav. 11 B, 145 B; Thān. 361 B, etc. ) speak of six different colours adhering to the soul in accordance with the quality of its deeds, the two extremes of these are referred to in Mait. 2.7 (sitasitaiḥ karma-phalaiḥ ) (cf. here YS and Y.Bh. 4.7 also ).
Means of Liberation : “He who, having begun works characterized by the gunas, (later ) causes all attachments to fall off, (he ) would, on the cessation of these, have destroyed all the deeds and kşiņaiḥ kleșair janma-mặtyu-prahāṇiḥ...
These abstracts from svet. 6.4 and 1.11, although apparently close to the concept of klesas in YS. 2.2-3 etc., do also reflect thoughts parallel to the Jaina concept that kasayas are the main : cause of the binding effect of karmas, and must therefore be totally annihilated ( kşapita ) in order to attain freedom from rebirth.