Studies in Jaina Philosophy

SR No.: 001616
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society
Publication Year: 1951
Total Pages: 366
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, Knowledge, Yoga, & Epistemology
File Size: 9 MB

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280
JAINA YOGA
[CH.
It is to be noticed in this connection that the length of the ayuḥkarman of a soul attaining emancipation cannot be reduced or increased. And in case the length of any of the other three karmans is greater than that of the ayuh karman, the soul reduces the former length in order to make it equal to the latter. This equalization is possible by a certain process called samudghāta. It is a rule that the omniscient must enjoy in full the fruits of the four karmans viz. vedaniya, nāman, gotra and āyus. It is again usual that the length of the vedaniya karman of an omniscient is greater than the length of his āyuḥkarman. The lengths of the said three karmans are to be equalized by the process of samudghāta. This process lasts only for eight instants, and is an indispensable means of the premature fruition and the consequent exhaustion of the karmans of longer durations." The karmic matter is forced to fructify earlier than the scheduled time by this process. There is a number of types of samudghāta. We are, however, concerned with the process of the samudghāta of a kevalin (omniscient). The soul in the thirteenth stage performs this process just an antarmuhūrta before its final emancipation. In the first instant of the process the soul stretches itself vertically both ways and touches the zenith as well as the nadir of the inhabited universe (loka), the thickness of this vertical column being the same as that of the body. In the second instant the soul expands itself in the forward and the backward directions up to the end of the loka. In the third i the soul expands sidewise both ways up to the end of the same. The soul now has divided the loka into four parts. In the fourth instant the soul expands in the remaining gaps and thus fills up the whole loka. Then in the next four instants the soul retraces the steps and returns to its original condition in the eighth instant. Now the soul has equalized the length of the other karmans with that of the āyuḥkarman. It now prepares for the fourteenth stage of absolute motionlessness in the way described above.
1 See Kgi, p. 159. 2 Cf. samudghātagato jīvaḥ prasahya karmapudgalān käläntarānubhavārhān api kşapayati drutam.
--Lokaprakāśa, Dravya, III. 13. 3 Even as a wet cloth dries up sooner when it is fully stretched out, so is the intensity (rasa) and consequently the duration (sthiti) dried up by the utmost expansion of the soul in the process of samudghāta. Cf. ārdrāmbarā-'suśoşavad ātma-visäraņa-visuska-samakarmā.
-Tīkā on TSubh, IX. 41 (p. 276).