Study in the Origins and Development of Jainism

SR No.: 006576
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S N Shrivastava
Publisher: Rekha Publication Gorakhpur
Publication Year: 2002
Total Pages: 162
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 8 MB

Page 56

Jain Kriyavāda
43
Nimmitavidins or cosmogonists; (5) Sayavādins or sensualists; (6) Samucchedavadins or annihilationists; (7) Niyavādins or eternalists; (8) Na-santi-paralokavādins or materialists.-+ In his commentary on the Achārănga Sütra, śilāíka also mentions six types of akriyāvāda - (i) Kālavāda; (ii) Isvaravāda; (iii) Ātmavāda; (iv) Niyativāda; (v) Svabhāvavãda and (vi) Yadricchã-vāda.45 These schools of thoughts have been mentioned several times in the Jain and the Buddhist texts and sometimes their view points have been critically discussed. It is to be noted in this context that silārka, commenting on some passages of the Sūtrakritānga, identifies the Buddhists with the akriyāvādins, perhaps, the underlying idea was that the Buddhists maintained the theory of momentariness of existence and, hence, there can not be any connection between the thing as it is now and as it will be in the next moment.46 But Silãńka was misled by later polemics and there is no doubt in the fact that the Buddhists were kriyāvādins.
In the fine, we may say that akriyāvāda is doctrine which envisages either that a soul does not exist or it does not act or is not affected by
acts.7
The next heretical doctrine mentioned in the Sūtrakritānga and other Jain texts48 is that of the agyānikas. About the agyanikas it is stated in the Sūtrakritānga, though they (pretend to) be clever, reason incoherently and do not get beyond the confusion of their ideas. Ignorant (teachers) speak to ignorant (pupils), and without reflection they speak untruth'."But statements of the Jain texts do not bring out clearly as to what were the central ideas of the agyānavāda. However, from the Buddhist texts and the commentary of silānka we are able to discern as to what agyānavāda denoted. Agyānavāda refers to the views of Sanjaya Belatthiputta. The śamañňa phala Sutta provides the following account about the doctrine of Sanjaya: 'If you inquire of me whether there be a future state of being, I answer: If I experience a future state of