Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

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

Page 188

158
Part 2 (b)
Ascetic Conduct
402
The problems to be handled in this part pertain to (1) Loyalty, (2) Alms food, (3) Supernatural power, and (4) Dispute with heretics.
403
(1) Loyalty Whether or not an ascetic is a loyal follower of the school is considered on the basis of (1) ascetic conduct and (2) the performance of alocana and pratikramana (reporting and repenting) particularly at the time of death. X. 2.398 calls a monk practising twelve bhikṣupratimas loyal, and V.8.339 calls a monk obeying fivefold vyavahäras (monastic jurisprudence) loyal. X.2.398 makes a bracketed reference to the Da'sa'srutaskandha for twelve bhikṣupratimas, and the Vyavahara X.276 enumerates fivefold vyavaharas. Theoretically speaking, both texts were composed in or after the second canonical stage.
404
The idea that heretics do not perform alocana and pratikramana is already mentioned in the Sutrakrta II.2, which must mean that they do not perform them in the same way as the Jainas. Their performance and the consequent receipt of due punishment seems to have become an established monastic practice from this period onwards. The observance of alocana and pratikramana by itself is a mild punishment, which is also a preliminary ceremony to receiving due monastic penalties such as tapas, cheda, mula and so on." Then it soon became a regular daily rite along with samayika, etc. On the doctrinal level, its performance is put in the frame of theory that it promotes purifying the soul by way of purging out bad karma. The purity of a soul at the moment of death has been traditionally weighed heavily in India, for it assures a reward of birth in heaven. The Jainas also adopted this traditional view and laid down a rule that the observance of alocana and pratikramana of the sins committed in one's life is a grave duty to be performed at the time of death. This became an important death ritual for the Jaina ascetics as well as laymen, and thus came to be considered as the criterion of loyalty. It is difficult to know when this criterion was established. It however makes a sudden appearance in the story texts. In all probability, it evolved in the process of Jaina ritual making during the fourth-fifth canonical stages. And this rule was probably imposed upon ascetics first, and must soon have been extended to householders.
405
Here is one passage regarding the ascetic practice of alocana and pratikramana involving the topic of loyalty with no relevancy to its performance at the time of death. VH.6.333 (cf. D-1b) justifies that an ascetic (monk or nun) is loyal as long as he has set out to report and repent the sins committed during his alms tour, whether touring outside or sojourning in a village to his elder monk, even if an unavoidable accidental circumstance prevented him from