Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

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

Page 165

135
Part 2
Cosmical Aspects
330
The Bhagavati materials pertaining to the cosmical aspect of jiva are relevant to the population and mobility of beings in this and that class in the course of undergoing transmigration in the universe.
331
V.6.207 makes some heretics say that the human world (manusya loka) is densely populated for 400 or 500 yojanas, against which MV proposes the Jaina view that naraka is densely populated with hellish beings for 400 or 500 yojanas. The Jainas and the Buddhists share the Brahmanical view that it is very difficult to be born as a human being, and from this state of existence alone can a being achieve emancipation. The Prajnapana m maintains that the relative number of M is the smallest among all classes of beings. It computes the relative strength of beings in this and that class, and it is known here that the population of hellish beings decreases as they descend the earths. We can place our text in the late third and fourth canonical stages,
332
It is maintained in X1.7.456 that there is no single aka'sa pradesa in loka where a jiva has never been born or died. The author explains by way of a simile that there is no single aka'sa pradesa in a goat pen that has never been polluted by goats' discharges. The author justifies it on the logical ground that it happens thus because loka is eternal, samsara is endless, jiva is everlasting, karma is manifold, and transmigration repeats itself again and again. The succeeding sutra 457 similarly vindicates that every being has been born many times or ananta times in each cosmic region in all forms of existence, and that he has been born many times or ananta times as a father, etc., an enemy, etc., a king, etc., and a servant, etc. The Jivajivabhigama, for instance, touches upon a similar idea. These sutras refer to the size of loka and jivas' abodes in loka, which we already placed in the fourth-fifth canonical stages (cf. A-1-2).
333
XIV.5.514 argues whether beings of this and that class are burnt or not when they run against fire-bodied beings, Agni-kayas here are meant as the gross fire-bodied beings which exist in the human regions alone. Thus it is said that H.A.M.G who run against the fire-bodied beings along their transit path with turn/s (vigraha-gati) are not burnt, because they are encased in karmana sariras which are free from the effect of any instrument. When they are taking the transit path without turns (avigraha-gati), A'M with rddhi and G (who are possessed of vaikriyika 'sarira) are not burnt by running against them, but A'M without rddhi and A2- are burnt. An idea as such can occur when the mechanism of transit path is known. We place this text in the fifth canonical stage.
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V.8.221 informs that the total number of jivas, the sub-totals of beings in this