________________
- 346 :
Bhagavai 6:1:1-4 pain, they (the śramaņa nirgranthas) become the ones (souls) with massive falling away of karma and massive termination of karma. O Gautama! suppose there is a person who pours drops of water on a hot iron plate. Would the drops of water poured on the hot iron plate quickly meet their end? Yes, they do meet their end. Similarly, O Gautama! the gross karmas of śramaņa nirgrantha which are made loose (or mild), made powerless and made innocuous, get quickly destroyed. Through experiencing whatever (little) pain, they (the śramana nirgranthas) become the ones (souls) with massive falling away of karma and massive termination of karma. It is in this sense that is said that the one (i.e., the jīva) with intensive experience of pain is the one with massive falling away of karma and the one with massive falling away of karma is the one with intensive pain and that among the one with great experience of pain and the one with little experience of pain, one who has auspicious passing away of karma is superior.
Bhāsya 1. Sūtras 1-4
In the present dialogue, attention has been drawn to the relationship between experiencing pain and falling away of karma. We give below the three laws related to the topic:
(1) Experiencing intensive pain versus massive falling away of karma.
(2) Whether experiencing of pain is intensive or little, the auspicious falling away of karma is the best (as massive).
(3) When the karma is intensified, there does not occur massive falling away of karma, in spite of experiencing intensive pain. For example, the infernals of the sixth and seventh land experience intensive pain, but there does not occur massive falling away of karma. On the contrary, though the śramaņa nrigrantha experiences little pain, there is massive falling away of karma, the reason being that he has loosened his karma due to samvara (inhibition).
In general the rule is that experiencing intensive pain is accompanied by massive falling away of karma; the exception is that experiencing mild pain is sometimes accompanied by massive falling away of karma.
The basic cause of falling away of karma is auspicious psychical state and auspicious activity (of mind, body and speech); the massiveness or meagreness of the falling away of karmas depends upon it.
Umāsvāti has explained that the nirjarā or elimination of kārmika particles is successively innumerable times more than the previous stage at each of the following ten stages of spiritual development which are
1. The possessor of enlightened world-view. 2. The lay-follower practising partial abstinence.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org