Pravachanasara

SR No.: 003289
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram
Publication Year: 1964
Total Pages: 612
Language: Hindi, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 16 MB

Page 89

Pravacanasāra
of both there is the pure one which is not amenable to karmic bondage. Being free from auspicious and inauspicious manifestations one should meditate on the soul as an embodiment of knowledge and absolutely different from everything else (63-70).
The atomic interlinking is a process by itself. Atomic modifications, cohesive or arid, whether having even or odd points, get mutually interlinked when ordinarily there is the difference of two points, the minimum point being excepted; the soul is not responsible for this process (73). But the physical world is fully packed with materlial bodies, subtle and gross and capable of becoming karmas which, coming into contact with the passional condition of the soul, inflow into the soul (77). The four kinds of bodies are material in nature; the soul, however, is without the sense-qualities, it is all sentiency. it is beyond inferential mark, and it has no definable shape (7980). The soul though not concrete perceives and knows concrete objects; so is the case with bondage (82). It is by the attitude of attachment and aversion that the soul is tinged, and thereby the karman binds(84). The soul has space-points wherein penetrate the karmic particles; they remain there and pass away according to the period of bondage; when the soul develops attachment there is bondage, otherwise not (86-7). The soul is absolutely different from all the embodied conditions (90 ff.). The soul is the direct agent of the developments of its consciousness and not of all those conditions constituted of material substances; thus it is not the agent of material karmas, but only of its own bhāvas which being tinged with passions receive karmas: this is really speaking the doctrine of bondage, ordinarily it may be stated differently (88-97).
The real meditation on the self is possible only when all notions of attachment and mineness are completely severed. The various objects, living and nonliving, are not the permanent associates of the soul which is essentially constituted of sentiency. The great saint who is completely immune from passional hindrances, being all-round rich in knowledge and happiness of all the senses together and having no functions of senses, meditates on the highest happiness (98-108).
BOOK III
The Jaina ascetic emblem is of two kinds: internal and external; the internal one which aims at liberation consists in being free from infatuation and preliminary sins, in being endowed with pure manifestation of consciousness and activities, and in having no desires at all; the external one consists in possessing a form in which one is born, in pulling out hair and moustache, in being pure, in being free from harm unto beings, and in not attending to the body. The external ascetic emblem prescribed for women, because of their natural and inherent disabilities, is of slightly different character consisting of clothing etc., and they are called nuns or Samanis (5-7, 24 * 6-16).
Perfect non-attachment is a prerequisite for adopting these emblems by entering the order of monks. If one wants to escape from misery, he should [p. 60:] adopt asceticism after saluting the divinity and saints, after taking leave of the family of relatives, being let off by the elders, wife and children, and being intent on the cultivation of knowledge, faith, conduct, austerities and strength. He should