Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

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

Page 225

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Part 4
Vedana and Nirjara
520
We have already examined some passages relevant to vedana and nirjara in the foregoing parts, which we shall not dwell on any more. This part is very short as a result.
521
The discussions of the karma theory conducted in the Prajnapanā as well as in the Bhagavati are in the main concentrated on the problems of bandha and vedana. The karma specialists formulated the mechanism of karmic process of bandha-vedana-nirjarā essentially on the analogy of the mechanism of atomic process of sanghāta-parināma-bheda as a whole. However, karma is bound with the soul, which ontologically differs from the phenomenon of pudgala bandha, thus the karma specialists had to formulate the concepts of bandhavedana-nirjara occurring between the soul and karma with the help of empirical observations. We have previously noted that many karma prakrtis were originally conceived in the context of vedana, and the types of bandha called anubhava-pradesa were primarily considered in the context of vedana. These were then theorized and systematized in the context of bandha. In other words, without a scrupulous analysis of the empirical phenomena of vedanā, it was impossible for them to formulate the concept of karma bandha. It thus stands to reason that the karma specialists in the canonical age engaged themselves in the discussion of bandha-vedana in the main.
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1.2.20 reads that a being and beings in all classes experience self-wrought misery (duhkha) when its fruit has arisen (udinna), but not when it has not yet arisen. Therefore some beings experience it but some do not (i.e., when some beings experience it, some others do not experience it). The same rule is said to be applicable to self-wrought ayus. Udaya and vedana express the same phenomenon by the different agents, i.e., karma and the soul. This text can be placed in the late third canonical stage.
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X V1.2.565 says that old age is experienced by a body, but sorrow by the mind. Therefore A- who do not possess a mind experience old age alone, while other beings experience both old age and sorrow. This text may belong to the late third canonical stage. It is explained in VI.7.291 that A- as well as plants and some asanjni trasas (i.e., sammurchimaja) experience sensations involuntarily (akama-nikarana) due to the absence of the mind, that some sanjnis also experience the same due to inattentiveness or not utilizing the mind, and that some capable sanjnis experience strong voluntary or purposive desire (prakamanikarana) but in this case they are unable to attain the other shore and devaloka, etc. The Prajnapanā XXXV enumerates the types of vedana called abhyupagamiki-aupakramiki (voluntary-involuntary) and nida-anida (consciousunconscious). Let us place this text in the fourth canonical stage.