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

Page 218

8. PHILOSOPHICAL DOCTRINES
199 deficiency of bile, just as fire waxes and wanes in proportion to the quantity of fuel consumed, but the sharpness of intellect is always seen to be due to study and learning at the feet of a teacher: to deny this is to contradict what is self-evident. In any case, there cannot be any causal relation between bile and intelligence, because there might be plenty of intelligence even when bile is totally absent.
It follows therefore that the mind cannot be a product or attribute of the body nor can it be identical in composition with the body.'
PĀŚUPATA DOCTRINES Somadeva tells us that, according to the Pāśupatas, ritual alone leads to salvation, meaning thereby the system of ritual prescribed in the religious texts of the Pāśupatas. The chief Pāśupata practices mentioned by him are smearing the body with ashes in the morning, at noon and in the evening, adoration (of the idol or the phallus of Siva or Pasupati), ceremonial offering of water-pots (probably before the idol), circumambulation from left to right, self-humiliation and other processes."
Somadeva does not explain any of the practices mentioned above, but we can understand most of them with the help of the commentary on the Ganakārikā of Bhāsarvajña, who flourished about the middle of the tenth century, and was probably a contemporary of Somadeva. It may be noted that the Ganakārikā is one of the very few works on the Pasupata system so far published, and both the text and the commentary thereon have been quoted in the brief account of the Pāśupata school in the Sarvudarsancsangraha. Passing references to Pāśupata doctrines are found also in the commentaries and sub-commentaries on the Vedāntasūtras 2. 2. 37 and specially in the Agamaprāmānya of Yamunamuni, the teacher of Rāmānuja; but perhaps the best extant account of the system is found in the commentary called Ratnaţikä on Bhāsarvajňa's Ganakārikā.*
As regards the religious practices of the Pāśupatas mentioned by Somadeva, the Ratna commentary refers not only to the smearing of the
अथ मतम्-पित्तप्रकृतिधीमान् मेधावी क्रोधनोऽल्पकामश्च । प्रवेद्यकालपलितो भवति नरो नात्र संदेहः ॥ तन्न प्रबहम् । वृद्धिहानी यथाग्नेः स्तामेधोत्कर्षापकर्षतः। पित्ताधिकोनभावाभ्यां बुद्धेः संप्राप्नतस्तथा ।। गुरूपासनमभ्यासो विशेषः शास्त्रनिश्चये। इति दृष्टस्य हानिः स्यात्तथा च तव दर्शने ॥ कुतश्चित् पित्तनाशेऽपि बुद्धरतिशयेक्षणात् । कुतः प्रभवभावोऽत्र स्याद्वीजाङ्करयोरिव ॥x x x x एवं च सतीदं न किंचित् । देहात्मिका देहकार्या देहस्य च गुणो मतिः । मतवयं
fa altra: P. 258. 2 'त्रिकालभस्मोद्धूलनेज्यागडुकप्रदानप्रदक्षिणीकरणात्मविडम्बनादिक्रियाकाण्डमात्राधिष्ठानादनुष्ठानात् इति पाशुपता' P.269. 3 See also next Chapter. 4 The Pasupata Sütras with the Bhäsya of Kaundinya has recently been published in
Trivandrum Sanskrit Series.