Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

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

Page 209

alpa karma, etc., cuts them off and experiences happiness just as a dirty piece of cloth leaves off impure matter particles when washed. This text introduces here the concept of varṇavadhya karma (cf. E-36-3). V1.3.232 is accompanied by a gathā covering the topic in Udde'saka 3 which includes sutras belonging to the fifth canonical stage. Hence this text is assignable to the final canonical period. Likewise, the hellish beings in the seven earths are discussed in XII. 3.474 in relation to maha-alpa (karma-) kriya-asrava-vedana-rddhi-dyuti, and we assign it to the fourth-fifth stages. X IX.4.653. computes alternative combinations of maha-alpa asrava-kriya-vedana-nirjara, which yields sixteen different types. H are said to have maha a srava-kriya-vedana and alpa nirjara, G have maha asrava-kriya and alpa vedana-nirjara, while A and M may have all kinds of alternative combinations. Here we note that kriya is reckoned after asrava, which must be an error made in the process of transmitting the text. Nirjara is a topic which is not properly handled even in the Prajnapana, and a discussion of the quantity of nirjara generally occurs in the final canonical stage. We can place this text in the fifth canonical period.
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VI.1.230 says that monks practising pratimas attain mahā vedana-nirjarā, hellish beings in the 6th and 7th earths attain maha vedana and alpa nirjara, monks in the state of saile'si attain alpa vedana and maha nirjara, and Anuttaropapatika devas attain alpa vedana-nirjara. This text was composed obviously after V1.1.228 which reads that mahā vedana means mahā nirjara and mahā nirjarā means mahā vedanā (because as much karma is experienced so much karma has to be expelled by the end of samsara), however praiseworthy nirjara is the best whether vedana is maha or alpa. It continues to explain that hellish beings in the 6th and 7th earths subject to maha vedana, but their nirjara is not as much as that of the monks. The reason forthcoming is that hellish beings bind karma tightly (gadha) therefore they cannot expel them easily in great quantity upon experiencing it, while ascetics bind karma loosely ('slista), and therefore they can easily purge it out in great quantity. Gadha bandha and 'slişta bandha are illustrated by similes of difficulty and easiness of washing a mud-stained cloth and a dust-stained cloth, difficulty of beating off fragments of an anvil, easiness of burning hay and speed of evaporating water dropped on red hot iron. Thus nirjara derived by 'slista bandha is praiseworthy as it quickens the end of samsara. These texts belong to the fifth canonical stage.
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We can recognize in these texts above that vedana-nirjarā form a distinct categorical couplet. Asrava is taken up in relation to kriya, both of which are virtually synonymous, the one expressing the ontological aspect and the other expressing the ethical aspect of the same phenomenon. Bandha is usually coupled with moksa as evinced in 1.5.106. We have already observed how the concept of samwara was pushing its way towards this line. The doctrine of tattúas was thus in the process of formulation during the fourth-fifth canonical stages."