Illuminator of Jaina Tenets

SR No.: 006924
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Tulsi Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1985
Total Pages: 252
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 176

138
Illuminator of Jaina Tenets
'virato' py asau kathyate.
(Aph.) The partially abstinent is one who is (partially) restrained and partially unrestrained. (VII)
[Lustre VII
(Gloss) 'Partially' means the observer of the vows 'in part'. He is also called non-abstinent owing to his failure to observe the vows in full.
(Note) The fifth state of spiritual development is exemplified in the life of a Jaina layman. He does not observe the vows in full in the sense that he does not take the vow of complete abstinence in respect of the threefold activities of mind, speech and body, nor to do those activities himself, or get done, or approve of them. The householder's vows are partial also in the sense that they do not cover their entire subject-matter. For instance, a householder does not take the vow of abstaining from injury to one-sensed living beings that include the vegetable life also. For a detailed account of the nature of the partial vows undertaken by the layman, vide supra p. 117.
The vows are essentially negative. Thus a householder takes the vow of abstaining from violence to the living beings possessed of two or more sense-organs, technically called trasakāya. The vow is not taken in the positive form, viz. "I shall limit my violent activities only to one-sensed living beings". Such positive form of vow has been condemned as duppaccakkhāna1 (Skt. duşpratyākhyāna, bad abstinence).
In fact, it is only abstinence or restraint or control that is dharma (righteousness). Any kind of act of commission, whatever its implication, is not righteousness. Righteousness means dissociation from sinful activities to the best of one's capacity. Such dissociation alone is righteousness. In other words, any activity so far as it is an attempt at abstinence or self-restraint is religious, the other aspects of it are outside the scope of religion. Self-restraint also is religious life in the true sense of the term-samyamaḥ khalu jivanam.
८. प्रमावयुक्तः सर्वविरतः प्रमत्तसंयतः ।
प्रमादास्रवो न संयमावरोधकः । प्रवृत्तिरूपश्च प्रमादः । स एवात्र विवक्षितो यो मलोत्पादको न तु संयमविनाशकः ।
8. pramadayuktaḥ sarvavirataḥ pramattasaṁyataḥ.
pramādāsravo na saṁyamāvarodhakaḥ, pravṛttirūpaś ca pramādaḥ. sa evātra vivakṣito yo malotpadako na tu samyamavināśakaḥ.
(Aph.) The (absolutely) self-restrained (but) unexempt from remissness is one who is totally abstinent but subject to remissness. (VIII)
(Gloss) The influx of remissness does not obstruct self-restraint. Remissness is of the nature of an activity. Such remissness alone is 1 Sütrakṛtänga, 2/7/10.