Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

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

Page 195

Part 2 (c)
Lay Conduct
423
The Bhagavati stories describe the lay religious activities of various social classes in the classical period, the details of which we will not go into. Pratyakhyana of laymen along with some 'sila-vratas appears in the Sutrakrta II.7, which was perhaps finalized in its present form at a considerably later time, and the designation of pratyakhyana as anuvrata does not seem to occur until the Upasakado'sa. The Dasa'srutaskandha VI enumerates eleven upasaka pratimas which again probably belong to a considerably later time, for the Dasa'srutaskandha is primarily a text for ascetics. The later so-called anuvrata must have soon been distinguished from the mahavrata when it became the essential code of ascetic conduct. Samayika and pausadhopavasa might also have been practised by the laity before the age of the Upasakada'sā much as lay Buddhists had similarly been practising their observances in their own way. However, these come into vogue in the age of story composition, when the Upasakada'sā talks about twelve upasaka dharmas along with their aticaras, and enumerates eleven upasaka pratimas. We should also recall the stereotyped phrases such as 'Sama yika di 11 Angas' occurring in this age. This causes us to assume that these fundamental rules of lay conduct were seen as obligatory duties for all the lay community members in the age of church construction, i.e., in the fourth-fifth canonical stages, but samayika, etc., practised in the early age were not yet obligatory to each individual layman but probably voluntary.
424
It is said in VI.1.262 that if a layman, who has renounced himsā to animals or plants but not to earth-beings, accidentally happens to kill an animal or a root, he is not considered to be a transgressor of the vow. It is an old position of the Jainas that an unintentionally committed action is outside the rule of aticara. Similar illustrations also appear in the Sutrakrta 1.2 in relation to akasmad-danda. This text is not couched in any of the later technical terms, and we place it in the second-early third canonical stages.
425
Acceptance of the vow of gross renunciation means, it is said in VI.5.328, that a layman confesses his past wrong deeds (pratikramana), repels his present wrong deeds (samara) and renounces his future wrong deeds (pratyakhyana). It offers alternative possible combinations in observing fivefold gross renunciations by way of threefold karanas and threefold yogas in the three tenses of time, which amount to 735 different ways. This thought pattern resembles Umasvati's exposition of kriya made in the T.S. VI.9. We place this text in the fifth canonical stage.
426
In VI.1.261 (cf. D-la), it is said that a layman who observes samayika by staying at monks' upa'sraya (samanovasae) performs samparayika kriya but not iryapatha, because his soul is functioning as the agent of instruments