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Summary of the Paper
The Parables of the Three Merchants
1221)
Josef Bartosek (Comparison: Uttarādhyayanasūtra 7,14-30' with Matthew 25,14-27
and Luke 19,11-27) Commentary The three merchants represent three different approaches to life. Everybody goes with his capital. Each merchant represents a different approach to life. The capital is life (16). The life in Jainism is the result of previous deeds, not a gift, unlike in the Gospel, and so everybody has his own capital.
One returned with significantly more capital, the other with just his capital and the third returned empty handed. The third merchant loses his capital and gets plenty of negative karma matter (ghātikarma) and is born again in a very low position (16), but he is not lost, he only starts again from much worse situation.
The second merchant brings his capital back-he is born again as a human being, but there is no progress. To keep his position he has to "exercise in various virtues" (20), as we know that there is an influx of karma and of course, some karma falls off as the time passes.
The third merchant increases his capital, by higher virtues he removes karma up to the limit possible in this era: duḥkhasukha, (21)
Every sensible man can see that gaining "divine pleasures" is the highest goal. Why lose them? Isn't such behaving silly? (22) Especially when the difference between them is so huge-like a drop compared with the ocean. (23, 24)
