Tattvartha Sutra

SR No.: 006796
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sukhlal Sanghavi, K K Dixit
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2000
Total Pages: 596
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Tattvartha Sutra, & Tattvarth
File Size: 10 MB

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44
TATTVĀRTHA SŪTRA
these classes have to undertake no meritorious performance like penance etc. by way of acquiring the ksayopasama necessary for the avadhi-jñāna. Hence it is that all the beings belonging to the classes in question must possess some quality or other of such avadhi-jñāna as is present there ever since birth and stays there throughout life. On the other hand, there are also classes of beings concerning which it is not necessary that birth in them must be followed by an acquisition of avadhi-jñāna. Those belonging to these latter classes must undertake meritorious performances like penance etc. by way of acquiring the kşayopasama necessary for the generation of avadhijñāna. Hence it is that avadhi-jñāna does not invariably appear in all the beings belonging to these classes; it appears in only those of them who have developed in themselves the meritorious qualifications necessary for the generation of avadhi-jñāna. Thus even while all the cases of avadhi-jñāna have a common internal cause in the form of kşayopasama it is for the sake of convenience that some of them are called bhava-pratyaya and others guna-pratyaya in view of the fact that the beings belonging to certain classes acquire avadhi-jñāna just as a result of being born in these classes while those belonging to certain others acquire it as a result of undertaking meritorious performances like penance etc.
The embodied beings are divided into four classes viz. nārakas or hellish beings devas (i.e. gods) or heavenly beings animals, human beings. Of these, the beings belonging to the first two classes possess the bhava-pratyaya type of avadhi-jñāna—that is, they possess avadhi-jñāna ever since birth; on the other hand those belonging to the last two classes possess the guna-pratyaya type of avadhi-jñāna—that is they possess avadhi-jñāna as a result of some meritorious performance.
Question : When all the beings possessing avadhi-jñāna are embodied beings then why is it that some of them happen to possess it ever since their birth—that is, withoạt any special endeavour on their part—while others come to possess it as a result of some special endeavour on their part ?