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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8. PHILOSOPHICAL DOCTRINES
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must be realised in one's own heart, and hence described as unexplained by speech and beyond the range of mental comprehension.' Nirvana, according to the Madhyamika school, is nothing but the realisation of sunyata, which consists in the cessation of the complex of worldly notions known as prapanca.2
Somadeva has a fling at the doctrine of void, when he says that if a follower of the Sunya theory tries to establish it by means of independent proofs, he will be contradicting his own theory that everything is sunya 'void' 'non-existent.'3 The Madhyamikas are, however, careful to point out that what they maintain is not abhäva, non-existence, but the relative existence of tings: they recognise neither eternalism nor annihilationism.*
SAMKHYA DOCTRINES
There are two statements defining the Samkhya view of salvation in Yasastilaka VI. 1. The first is that salvation results from discrimination between Matter (Prakṛti) and the Self (Puruşa). The second is that salvation is the condition in which the Self subsides in the pristine state (of pure consciousness) after the cessation of intellect, mind and egoism, resulting in the destruction of the sense organs." The expression, tada draṣṭuḥ svarupe'vasthanam, is borrowed from the Yogasutras 1. 3. The idea of the soul abiding in itself after the cessation of all mental and intellectual processes occurs in Samkhyasūtras 2. 34.
In the episode of Candakarman (Book V), Samkhya doctrines are represented by Asuri who quotes the following verse on the Samkhya conception of the Self (p. 250):
अकर्ता निर्गुणः शुद्धो नित्यः सर्वगतोऽक्रियः । अमूर्तश्चेतनो भोक्ता पुमान् कपिलशासने ॥
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1
Candrakirti (18 9 ) says: 'विकल्पश्चित्तप्रचारः तद्र‌हितत्वात् तत्तत्त्वं निर्विकल्पम् ।'
2 ' शून्यतैव सर्वप्रपञ्च निवृत्तिलक्षणत्वान्निर्वाणमित्युच्यते' Candrakīrti on Madhyamakakārikā 18. 5. Properly speaking, salvation results from the destruction of Karma and the Klesas, but the latter spring from Vikalpas or fanciful ideas, and these again from prapanca, which is eradicated only on the realisation of Sunyata. Nagarjuna says:: कर्मक्लेशा विकल्पतः । ते प्रपञ्चात् प्रपञ्चस्तु शून्यतायां निरुध्यते ॥ 18. 5. Candrakirti says: f अनादिमत्संसाराभ्यस्तात् ज्ञानज्ञेयवाच्यवाचककर्तृकर्मकरण क्रियाघटपटमुकुटरथरूप वेदनास्त्रीपुरुषलाभालाभसुखदुःखयशोऽयशोनिन्दाप्रशंसादिलक्षणाद्विचित्रात् प्रपञ्चादुपजायन्ते । स चायं लौकिकः प्रपञ्चः निरवशेषः शून्यतायां सर्वभावस्वभावशून्यतादर्शने सति निरुध्यते ।'
3 शून्यं तत्त्वमहं वादी साधयामि प्रमाणतः । इत्यास्थायां विरुध्येत सर्वशून्यत्ववादिता ॥ P. 272.
4 See above.
5 'प्रकृतिपुरुषयोः विवेकमतेः ख्यातेः इति सांख्या: ' P.269.
6 'बुद्धिमनोऽहंकार विरहाद खिलेन्द्रियोपशमा वहात्तदा द्रष्टुः स्वरूपेऽवस्थानं मुक्तिः इति कापिलाः । P. 270.
7 'तन्निवृत्तावुपशान्तोपरागः स्वस्थः '
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