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

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The Unknown Pilgrims
behaviour characterised by deceit, lack of truthfulness and trickery.79 Human life is the lot of those who have lived peaceable lives, characterised by respect for others and goodness of heart, and have manifested only slight attachments.80 Life in the heavenlies belongs to those who have led a disciplined though not wholly detached life, whose virtuous conduct has been imposed upon them by circumstances and not by choise - there is thus a meritorious but involuntary asrava - and whose austerities have been excessive or injudicious;81 this state is reserved for those also who have achieved right belief. They will find their abode in the highest realm of all, that of the devas. 82
E - Bandha: The state of servitude of the jiva
Asrava, the penetration of the jiva by karmic matter, is just the beginning of an elaborate process of which the second phase is termed bandha: the state of servitude to which the jiva is reduced on account of this element foreign to its nature. The penetration of karmic matter, its invasion and installation, so to speak, in the jiva are operations of great delicacy which mask themselves and achieve their task without it being possible to define them with precision. It is for this reason that certain texts place under äsrava aspects that other texts place under bandha without, however, implying any difference in the doctrine.
What are the causes of this bondage? The same as those we mentioned in connection with asrava, namely: yogas and kaşāyas. 83
79 Cf. TS VI, 16.
80 Cf. ibid., 17-18; it is to be noted that these dispositions are the opposite of those which lead to hell; cf. also KarnG III, 9.
81 Cf. TS VI, 20.
82 Cf. ibid., 21; cf. TS IV on the subject of celestial beings and also: SkrS II, 2, 74 and Karm III, 10-11.
83 cf. TS VIII, 2.