Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 315

Tattva, Reality
287
veiling of the upayoga by karmic matter that the other powers and faculties are also themselves veiled. 10
Furthermore, the Tattvārtha-sūtra gives, as a property belonging to the jiva (ātman): bhavya, the capacity for Liberation, and abhavya, the lack of that same capacity for Liberation 11 The brief commentary on this text does not permit us to know for certain whether abhavya is an absolute, irremediable and eternal. The idea as such does not appear in the ancient Sutras. Kundakunda speaks of it as a wellestablished belief; he does not state the initial cause but affirms that a jiva (ātman) characterised by abhavya does not believe in mokşa, it is incapable of freeing itself from the clutches of matter and thus will never acquire right vision and right knowledge, even if, moreover, it knows the Scriptures and follows the path of asceticism; Kundakunda compares it to a snake which, even if it drinks sweetened milk, remains poisonous. 12
Jiva - "formless"
It is both amūrti (without form) and also murti (possessing a concrete appearance), that is to say that according to niscaya, the jiva is not possessed of any form, while according to vyavahära, the jiva occupies a material body which of necessity involves colour, taste, smell and touch.13
10 Enlarging on the effects of karmic matter, Kundakunda reaffirms: jiva (ätman) whose nature is upayoga; cf. SamSa 36; 57; 89-90; 94-95.
11 Cf. TS II, 7; the other substances do not possess this property.
12 Cf. PSa I, 62; SamSa 273-274; 317; cf. also P.S. Jaini, 1977, where the author mentions: "the remarkable concurrence between the Jains and the Buddhists on the concept of bhavya and abhavya..."
13 vanna rasa pamca gamdha do phásă attha niccaya jive
no samti amutti tado vavahārā mutti bamdhado. DravSam 7; cf. PSa I. 55; II, 38-40.