Gandharavada

SR No.: 006739
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Esther A Solomon
Publisher: Gujarat Vidyasabha
Publication Year: 1966
Total Pages: 400
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

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54
There are a number of steps on ascending which the soul attains perfect emancipation. They are the different stages of spiritual development (gunasthānas). This is comparable to the krama-mukti (gradual emancipation) of the Vedic current of thought or to the stages of yogacarya (yogic meditation) of the Buddhists. The soul may continue to be embodied even after it does not bind any new karman unto itself. This is what is known as jīvanmukti, as against videha-mukti (when it is free from the body).
[The Buddhists also have the concept of 'sopādisesa' and 'anupādisesa nirvāṇa',* upādi signifying the five skandhas ].
(For a detailed discussion regarding Jiva, see Gañadhara. vāda 1, 3, 6, 11).
THE DOCTRINE OF KARMAN
"The doctrine of Karman is the central dogma of the Indian religions. It means: every action, every word, every thought produces, besides its visible, an invisible transcendental effect-the Karman: every action produces, if one may so express it, certain potential energies, which under given conditions, are changing themselves into actual energies, forces which, either as reward or punishment, enter sooner or later into appearance." | The Gañadharavāda thus rightly assigns a place of importance to the discussion of the doctrine of karman. We find in Ganadharaváda 2 a lengthy discussion establishing the existence of karman. It be pointed out that karman figures prominently in Gañadhara vāda 5 dealing with the semblance between this world and the other world, and in Ganadharavāda 7,8 establishing the existence of gods and hellish beings, in Gañadharavāda, 9 to the world of Vişnu and enjoys the company of Vişnu. Nāgasena has said in the Milinda Pañha, that the pudgala (Buddhist word for soul) can realise nirvāṇa in whatever piace it is existing in.
* The concept of jīvanmukti is acceptable to all systems of philosophy and individual philosophers except Rāmānuja, Nimbārka, Madhva and Mandana and the like among the Sankaraites.
I'The Doctrine of Karma in Jaina Philosophy '—Dr. H. Glasenapp (Preface to the German edition p, xi).