Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

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

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the ordinary sense of this term, and those of the latter are expressive of their opposites. Then, the Bhagavatisutra X 1.4.480 which takes up the functions and peculiar features of pancastika yas states about those of dharma stika ya (or dharma) and adharmastikaya (or adharma): "All states of moving such as coming and going of a jiva, his speaking and blinking of the eyes, and his mental, vocal and physical activities are enabled by the presence of dharmastikaya, and its peculiar nature is motion (gati). All states of keeping still such as standing, sitting, lying down and mental concentration are enabled by the presence of adharmästikāya, and its peculiar nature is stand still sthiti).” Catalogued here are centrifugal energy that moves outwards, and centripetal energy that moves inwards as in the case of mental concentration or energy that works to keep it standstill. In other words, dharma is the conditional cause of outward motion, and adharma that of inward motion or of keeping still.
The contents of dharma and adharma listed in the Bhagavatisutra XX.2.663 exhibits the most confused position among those of pancastikayas. This text seems to have been composed sometime in the early fifth stage,' and X 1.4.480 in a later period of the fifth stage. At the end of the canonical stage, Umasvati poses the question in his Tattvarthasūtra X.6, Bhasya, "Why a liberated soul does not go beyond the end of the world?" To this it is replied, “Because dhartmastikaya does not exist. For dharmastikaya is indeed the conditional cause of motion. It does not exist there."
From the materials gathered above, dharma and adharma, which were principles originally foreigh to the Jainas, came to be established as the causes of motion and rest, pertaining to the denial of upward motion of a liberated soul into aloka at the time of his final release from samsara. And the reason why dharma and adharma came to bear the strange meanings of the causes of motion and rest seems to be involved with this problem.
From a considerably early period, the Jainas had advanced a view that loka does not exist by itself, but is surrounded by aloka. This view is supported by the Bhagavatisutra 1.6.51' in the following way: "Loka lies amidst aloka, a continent amidst the ocean, and an ocean amidst the continent, inasmuch as a boat floats in the water, a hole exists in a piece of cloth and a shadow remains in the sunshine." However, it is difficult to postulate that this heavy loka can lie directly on absolute space, aloka. So they started to assume that loka in which jivas and ajivas abide is supported by dense water, dense air, thin air, and then by absolute space, in due order. The Bhagavatisutra 1.6.54 justifies the above theory by proving it in the fol. lowing way: "Someone fills a large leather bag with air, and ties the center of it very tightly with a string; then, he lets air out of its upper portion and fills it with water, and unties the string in the middle; now he will find that water in the leather bag is held in the air. Or someone enters water with an air-filled leather bag tied around his waist, and he can surely float on the water."