Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

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

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(adhikarani). Likewise V1.5.327 reads that if a layman's personal properties such as his cloth and his wife were stolen and seduced while he is engaged in samayika in monks' upa'sraya, he surely searches for his personal belongings by considering them as his own, because he cannot renounce his mamatva or sense of possession, even though he practises samayika which precisely aims at the renunciation of mamatva. The latter text in particular casts ridicule upon laymen in that they are incapable of practising samayika even for a moment. These texts must have been composed at the time when samayika became an established obligatory duty to all individual laymen. A mention of upa's raya does not occur even in the fourth canonical stage. We assign these texts to the fifth canonical stage.
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How laymen observed bimonthly pausadhopavasa is vividly described in the Sarkha story in XI.1.436-37. Here Sankha, contradicting the agreement made with his friends to take a full meal before the fortnightly fast, fasts in the pausadhasala observing chastity, abandoning all ornaments and weapons, and keeping awake throughout the night on darbha grass. Taking a full dinner before the day of pausadha was thus common practice at that time. XI.1.439 of the Sarka story refers to 1.1.18 (cf. E-3a-3), therefore our text belongs to the fifth canonical stage.
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With reference to the donation of food, VI.1.263 reads that a layman, by offering pure food to worthy monks, either Jaina or Brahmin, gives them peace, at the same time gaining peace for himself, and by so doing he can renounce life, renounce things difficult to renounce... and finally attain emancipation. V1.6.331 says that if a layman offers pure food to worthy recipients, it ensues nirjara alone but not binding bad karma, that if he offers impure food to worthy recipients, it ensues more nirjara than binding bad karma, and that if he offers pure or impure food to unworthy recipients, it results in binding bad karma alone but not nirjara. Whether the recipients are worthy or not is considered here more important than the purity or otherwise of the object of donation. This idea must belong to later ages, because purity or impurity of food was the main topic discussed in olden times. The T.S. VII.34, relevant to dana, is derived from the Bhagavati XV.540, which belongs to the fifth stage. Also Umasvati probably consulted the content expressed in VI.1.263 in composing his T.S. VI.33. We place these texts in the fourth-fifth canonical stages.
VII.5.329 which is a non-dialogue text offers the following information: (1) The Ajivikas hold the principle that all beings eat living beings, therefore they take it for granted that beings survive by killing other beings; (2) List of twelve lay Ajivikas, whose teacher is Go'sala; (3) The five prohibited fruits and the fifteen prohibited occupations of lay Ajivikas; and (4) Rebirth of lay Ajivikas. All this information was probably collected here in one place to justify that lay Ajivikas
are to be born in heaven (cf. D-3). The five forbidden udumbara fruits appear Jain Education International