Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

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YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
these stories illustrate, is also emphasized elsewhere in the romance, being represented as the raison d'être of Dharma and the antidote against materialism.
सत्यं न धर्मः क्रियते यदि स्याद् गर्भावसानान्तर एव जीवः । a tapi
जातिस्मराणामथ रक्षसां च दृष्टिः परं किं न समस्ति लोके ॥ स्वयं कृतं जन्तुषु कर्म नो चेत् समः समस्तः खलु किं न लोकः ।
भूतात्मकं चित्तमिदं च मिथ्या स्वरूपभेदात् पवनावनीव ॥ एवं चेदमपि संगच्छते
यदुपचितमन्यजन्मनि शुभाशुभं तस्य कर्मणः प्राप्तिम् । व्यञ्जयति शास्त्रमेतत्तमसि द्रव्याणि दीप इव ।। “Dharma need not, of course, be practised if the existence of the Self were limited to the period between birth and death. But that is not the case. Because, do we not see in the world people who can remember their past lives as well as those who become ghosts after death? If self-done Karma had no effect on sentient beings, would all creatures not be equal in status? It is also false to say that the mind is composed of matter, because mind and matter essentially differ, like earth and air. On these grounds the following statement turns out to be true. The science of astrology' reveals the consequences of good and bad Karma accumulated in another birth, just as a lamp reveals things in darkness." (Book IV, p. 92).
The romance of Yasodhara has also a didactic purpose. It shows us the seamy side of a woman's character and warns against the grave consequences of conjugal infidelity. The idea that marriage entitles the husband to the body of a woman, 'sold by her parents in the presence of the gods, the Brāhmaṇas, and the Fire' but not necessarily to her heart, Occurs twice in our work, in Book IV, and in the story of Padmā in Book VII. We read in the latter context:
स्त्रीणां वपुर्बन्धुभिरग्निसाक्षिकं परत्र विक्रीतमिदं न मानसम् । स एव तस्याधिपतिर्मत: कृती विस्रम्भगर्भा ननु यत्र निर्वृतिः॥
that of the Jaina Kathānaka literature. See Chap. XVI. It may be added that the doctrine of metempsychosis appears also in the system of the Elkasaites, a JewishChristian sect of the second century: 'for, though Christ was regarded as born in the ordinary way, His birth of Mary was held to be but one of many such experiences. He had been incarnate before and would be incarnate again.' Kidd (op. cit.), vol. I, p. 103. The literary history of metempsychosis is a subject which requires detailed treatment on comparative lines. Śrutasāgara says in his commentary that the verse is written at the beginning of horoscopes. The evidence of astrrlogy is cited to prove the existence of Karma and
rebirth. 2 See Chap. ILI.