Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

Author(s): Suzuko Ohira
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

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karma theory in the post-canonical age. This is the main direction that the le'sya theory of the Jainas took in later time.
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(3) Jņāna The Bhagavati materials relevant to jnana pertain to avadhi, manahparyaya and kevela jnana, which are taken up in due order. The Yogasutra I also enumerates these types of jnana in parallel, i.e., sükşma-vyavahita-viprakrstajnana, para-citta-jnana and taraka-jnana. The Buddhists also accept something similar to avadhi and manaḥparyaya', and the term kevala jnana undoubtedly makes its appearance in the Sankhyakarika. The Jainas must have adopted these types of knowledge prevalent in those days and developed them in the context of Jaina doctrinal system. The divisions of these types of jnana and their possessors are recorded in the Prajnapana, and its Ch.XXX II is devoted to the exposition of avadhi.
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1.4.155 poses the question, for instance, whether a monk who has cultivated his spiritual capacity knows and sees a god moving in the form of a vehicle created by his vaikriya samudghata. The reply comes forth that some monks can see the god alone or the vehicle alone, some can see both, and some cannot see either. The word avadhi is not employed here, however it is obvious that the texts is dealing with the problem of avadhi. The nature of avadhi is pretty well-known to the Prajnapana, but our text involves itself with vikurvana, a favourite topic of the canonical authors in the age of story composition. We can place it in the fourth-fifth canonical stages.
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1.6.161 explains that avadhi is acquired by possessing right faith, but vibhanga by possessing wrong faith. It is then said that a heretical monk (māyi mithyadrsti) with advanced spiritual capacity at Rajagsha can create Varanasi (said as Vanarasi) by his vaikriya samudghata and from this self-created city he can know and see Rajagrha, or he can know and see a vast cluster of towns which he has created between Rajagsha and Varanasi. He can perceive them all, but he cannot cognize them as they really are, because while he is perceiving Rajagrha he cognizes it as Varanasi, and while he is perceiving an unreal cluster of towns produced by his rddhi he cognizes it as a real cluster of towns. In other words, he cognizes real as unreal and unreal as real (cf. the definition of ajnana made by Umasvati). On the other hand, an orthodox Jaina monk (amayi samyagdrsti) with the same spiritual capacity can cognize them as they really are. We assign again the fourth-fifth canonical stages to this text. X. 31.365 similarly talks about the possessor, cause and range, etc., of vibhanga jnana which can be transformed into avadhi by acquiring samyaktva. This text is a part of a series of sutras 364-69 which belong to the fifth canonical stage (cf. E-2).
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It is narrated in V.4.188 that two gods from Maha'sukra Kalpa converse with For Private & Personal Use Only