Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

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

Page 287

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Freed from the weight of its body and karma, the liberated soul that has returned to its own natural self darts instantly upwards from the earth. It arrives right away at Siddha'sila on top of loka by the force of adrst a due to its long-standing dharma or virtuous deeds. A samsari cannot rely on the favour of adrsta because of his long-standing adharma or sinful deeds, and he is accordingly compelled to remain still in samsara like a gourd sunk under water.
Adrsta naturally works inside loka alone, as the Vaiseșikas do not postulate aloka. Dharma now works as the cosmic force of upward motion, and adharma as the mechanical force of standstill. Due to the mechanical cosmic force of dharma, the liberated soul comes up to the end of loka, where it is compelled to remain still due to that of adharma, and neither can it descend below there, for the world below belongs to samsaris. The all-knowing and all-seeing siddhas of the Jainas thus cannot but remain still on top of the man-shaped world, and contemplate untiringly upon the phenomena eternally occurring in the universe!!
Dharma and adharma thus seem to have been established as the cosmic principles of causing upward motion and its rest at Siddhasila, pertaining to a liberated soul at the time of its release from samsara. And if siddhas, the highest beings among jivas are not allowed to enter aloka, the rule surely applies to the rest of beings. If jivas do not exist in aloka, pudgala that forms their body, speech, mind and respiration can never be found therein. Aloka consists of vast absolute space alone. And inside loka are found the principles of dharma and adharma, in addition to jiva, pudgala and akasa, which turned out to be pancastikayas, the fundamentals of the Jaina ontology.
The principles of dharma and adharma must thus have been created in order to maintain the cosmographical dualism of the Jainas, for the sake of which the Jaina theoreticians made use of the Vaiseșika doctrine of adrst a. This problem is therefore important from the ontological and cosmographical viewpoints in the Jaina doctrines.
Interestingly enough, the Bhagavatisutra records heretics' reactions to this newly formulated doctrine of the Jainas in VI.10.304 and X V1.7.633 ( 8 234-35).
No doubt, the concepts of dharma-adharma began to be established at about the time when the Bhagavatisutra IX.2.663 was composed. These two principles, however, could never have been conceived without having relevance to a siddha's ascent to Siddhasila at the time of his deliverance from samsāra. The first text that touches upon this problem is the Tattvarthasutra X.6, bhasya, 'Dharmastikaya bhavat' (Because Dharmastikaya does not exist). This bhasya indeed clinched the issue. It came to be quoted soon by the Vi'seşavasyakabhaşya of Jinabhadra'' on the Svetāmbara side, and the Digambaras treated it as an independent sutra X.8 in their edition of the Tattvärthasutra."