Indian Antiquary Vol 02

SR No.: 032494
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 428
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
elements, earth, water, fire, air, and everything immoveable, e. g. mountains. The Jainas further assume six substances, viz :-jiva, soul; dharma, right or virtue; adharma, sin which permeates the world and effects that the soul must remain with the body; pudgala, matter, which possesses colour, odour, taste, and tangibility, such as wood, fire, water, and earth; kála, time, which is past, present, and future; and ákása, infinite space. According to their view, bodies consist of aggregates and atoms. The Jaina philosophers, like all Hindu philosophers, believe that the soul is fettered by works, and that man must endeavour to free himself from them. They adduce four causes as obstacles to the liberation of the soul: viz: pápa or sin; the five déramas or hindrances of the soul from obtaining holy and divine wisdom; áérava, i. e. the impulse of the incorporated soul to occupy itself with physical objects; and samvara, i. e. the cause of this obstacle. In another passage eight kinds of interruptions to the progress of the soul towards liberation are enumerated, namely, jnánávaraniya, i. e. the false idea that cognition is ineffectual, and that liberation does not result from perfect knowledge; darsanavarantya, or the mistake that liberation is not attainable by the study of the doctrine of the Arhats or Jinas; mohantya, or doubt whether the ways of the Tirthankaras or Jinas are irresistible and free from errors; antaraya, or the obstruction of the endeavours of those who are engaged in seeking the highest liberation. The four other interruptions are:-vedaniya, or individual consciousness, the conviction that the highest liberation is attainable; námika, or consciousness of possessing a determined personality; gotrika, the consciousness
[JULY, 1873.
of being a descendant of one of Jina's disciples; lastly, dyushka, or the consciousness that one has to live during a determined time. These spiritual states are conceived in an inverted order; the four first of them designate birth and progress in the circumstances of personal life; and the four last designate progress in perception. The highest liberation or moksha is attainable only through the highest cognition or by perfect
virtue.
In a former correspondence (Ind. Ant. vol. I. p. 321) I alluded to the monuments erected by the tribes of Western Khândesh, similar to
STONE AND WOODEN MONUMENTS IN WESTERN KHANDESH. BY W. F. SINCLAIR, Bo. C. S.
Colebrooke, passim, in his Misc. Essays, I. p. 382, where dirava is explained through asravayati purusham, and Wilson, passim, As. Res. XVII. p. 266.
+ See Ind. Alt. III. p. 428, and Note 2.
I Colebrooke, passim, in his Misc. Essays, II. p. 194, that the Bauddhas as well as the Jainas have borrowed this view from the S&nkhy a philosophy, and I. p. 394. § Ibid. I. p. 271 and p. 891.
See on this Ind. Alt. III. p. 828, and also fivarakrishna's Sankhyakarika, v. 41 seqq.
In this system a syncretism meets us to which Buddhism, the Vaiseshika and Sankhya philosophy have contributed. The doctrine that by a perfect cognition and strict observance of the teaching of a religious or philosophical sect the liberation of the soul from its fetters may be attained, is Buddhistic, or, more accurately, almost universally Indian.t The opinion that matter is eternal, and that there are only four elements, is Baddhistic. The idea that all things are composed of atoms belongs to the Vaiseshika school, although this doctrine had been more developed by Kanada than by the Jainas. This philosopher, moreover, considered time as a special category.§ Kapila teaches that by four states the liberation of the spirit is impeded, and by four others promoted; he arranges them, however, in a logical manner, so that the progress from the lowest state to the highest, i.e. to that of dharma or virtue, is well established, whilst such is less the case in the arrangement of the Jainas. The sect now under discussion borrowed from that philosopher probably also the idea of an ethereal body with senses formed of ideal elements, wherewith the soul is invested. (To be continued.)
Bee on this Ind. Alt. III. p. 424. This remark belongs to Colebrooke in his Misc. Essays, II. p. 192. The
those referred in Gondwâna to the Gauli period. The following notes contain what I have since been able to observe on the subject.
Jainas assume that the soul is, during its various migrations, invested with a coarser body called audárika, which remains as long as beings are compelled to live in the world, or with a body called vaikarika, which, according to the various circumstances of the being, assumes various forms. They further distinguish a finer body called dharika, which arises, according to their view, from the head of a divine sage. These three bodies are the external ones, and within them there are two finer ones; the one called karmana is the seat of the passions and feelings; the innermost, called taijasa, is still finer, never changes, and consists of spiritual forces. This body corresponds to the sakshmsa or lingasartra of Kapila, which subsists through all transmigrations till the Anal liberation of the spirit.