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Atmānuśāsana
आत्मानुशासन
The peace-breakers in life as well as in the world are four passions, viz., anger, ego, deceit and greed, led by the demon-king of Moha. Realising this altruism, the sacred sage has devoted eleven verses (213-223) eloquently elaborating the evil effects with historical and legendary anecdotes. It may appear that the sage was critical of women-folk but it should be understood in right perspective. His idea was not to get distracted by the age-old habit of sexual drive. Indeed, womanhood has received the highest praise in Rev. Śivarya's Bhagavatī Ārādhanā, gāthā
993-1002.
Eulogies of the Supreme Path
Three verses (224-26) stand out in depicting the graph of ātmānuśāsana or the path to self-realization. The pious author Shri Vijay K. Jain has captured the essences of these hymns in his Preface too.
Carrying Forward as a Torch-bearer
It is an established practice of Jaina ācāryas to carry forward the tradition of the agama by referring to as well as by internalizing the ideas and words of the earlier scriptures in their works. The venerable Ācārya Gunabhadra upheld this lofty tradition by following the footprints of previous scriptures. Table-3 summarizes some instances of the verses matching with those of previous works. The list is illustrative only. This comparison has been done previously in Hindi by Pt. Balchandra Siddhantaśāstrī (1980) under the tutelage of renowned scholars, viz., Dr. A.N. Upadhye and Dr. H.L. Jain. It may be mentioned here that this book at hand has copious cross-references.
Table-3. Verses in Ātmānuśāsana matching with those of earlier scriptures
From 'Ātmānusāsana' Corresponding reference in earlier works
Verse 195
Rev. Acarya Kundakunda's Pancastikāya, gāthā 128-30.
Verses 99 and 217
Rev. Acārya Kundakunda's Bhāva Pāhuḍa, gāthā 44 and 40, respectively.
(XVI)
