Atonements In Ancient Ritual Of Jaina Monks

SR No.: 011039
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Collete Caillat
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1975
Total Pages: 231
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 12 MB

Page 106

P, 108
But words should not deceive us; salla, salya is generally understood in a figurative sense and at the very most symbolises the offence (salyam aticāra-rupam, Vav Ț II 16 a 6; salyam aparādha-lakṣaṇam, ibid IV 13 b 13). Its dart pierces the guilty one particularly when he is concealing his fault1. No sinner could neglect to extract them without exposing himself to the direst consequences. On the contrary, their removal brings happiness: suhi bhave, says Malanisiha (II 196*).
:
90
Moreover, an atonement is never performed in vain. When it Is observed because it has been prescribed and no fault has been committed, it helps to shake off the karman which has not yet matured (kamma-nijjarð). This is the benefit that the innocent religious, for example, receives on occasions from the compulsory twice-daily ceremony of "repentance" (padikkamana; cf. Abhidhana 5, 264a).
P. 109
The various observances which, with the payacchittas, are grouped under the name of "mortification", tavo, tapas contribute to the same result: "When one prevents water from reaching it, a great well dries up as people draw on it and as the water evaporates. The religious who has Inter-rupted the inflow of evil deeds will shake off, by his ascetic fervour, the karman accumulated during tens of millions of existences" :
jahā maha-talāyassa samniruddhe jal'agame ussimcaṇāe tavaṇāe kameņam sosaṇā bhave
evam tu samjayassavi pāva-kamma-nirāsave
bhava-kodi-samciyam kammam tavasā nijjarijjai (Uttar 30, 5-6;
cf. 29, 27)2.
Two types of mortification are recognised: external (bāhira( y )a), and internal (abbhantara(y)a, or abbhintara( y )a). Both have six subdivisions. The external mortifications consist in omitting meals (for a limited perlod, or for a whole life-time); in retrenching (on food, personal possessions and emotional attachments); in begging alms (while imposing many res
1. Cf. CHARPENTIER, Uttar p. 383, ad 30, 3: pain, trouble, sin, rectifying Jacobi's translation by "delusions" SBE 174. See also R. WILLIAMS, Jaina Yoga 213, evil; and the re-statement of DELEU, Studien, p. 149 ad Mahānisiha I 4.
2. Conversely, the Jaina religious takes care to prevent the accretion of any new karman. An important group of precautions permits him to be armed against its assaults (samvara). By practising jointly nirjara and samvara, one attains deliverance (cf. Inde classique & 2487). See the critical study of Uttar 30 (called tavomaggagai) by L. ALS. DORF, The Arya stanzas of the Uttarajjhaya. 57-62 (Abh. der Geistes- und Sozialwiss. Kl., Akademie der Wiss. und der Literatur in Mainz, 1966. 2, p. 155-220).