Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

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

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in the primitive sense of the principle of retribution in the Acara 1.3.2.3, and in the Sutrakṛta I.1.1.3 and 1.10.21, which are expressed in connection with himsa. Vaira is also used in the sense of hostility. The word vaira frequently occurring in the early Buddhist texts is employed in the ordinary sense of hostility.
The word srota in the sense of stream is again a common term shared by the early Buddhist texts (e.g., Suttanipata 3.38.13; Dhammapada 24.14 and 27.1) and the Acara (I.4.3.138-39, I.5.4.160, 1.5.6.168-69 and 1.9.1.16).
Acara I, the word srota is expressed in terms of adana-srota, atipata-srota, urdhava-srota, addhaḥ srota and tiryak-srota. Atipata-srota probaby means that vaira is emitted by a victim upon his slaughterer in the form of a stream, and adana-srota probably signifies that the slaughterer receives the emitted vaira. Srota in urdhava, adhas and tiryanc probably mean that the jivas who are fully present in all these directions, i.e., in the air, on the earth and in the earth, are capable of emitting vaira in the form of current at any time, because if a man dances up and down, for instance, in a field, he harms beings around him in all these directions.
Another common term shared by these two schools is asrava, which is used by the Buddhists in the technical sense of defilements or passion, and by the Jainas in the technical sense of flowing in' of karma matter. From the usage of these terms, it seems that vaira or the efficacy of retribution was conceived among the primitive populace in the sense of a force that catches the soul of an assailant by 'flowing in' (asrava) in the form of a stream (srota). Vaira seems to have been understood as a kind of energy discharged by a victim's soul. The primitive idea as such is thus clearly stamped in the terms employed by the Acara I, while the same terms used by the early Buddhist texts have cast away the original senses as such, for Buddha did not share the animistic world view and the way of liberation held by MV.
The word srota appears rarely after the Acara I. This alludes to a direction towards sloughing off a remnant of the primitive concept of vaira. At the same time, the word vaira itself comes to be used in the ordinary sense of hostility or anger in the Uttara (IV.2 and VI.7) and Da'savaikalika (IX.3.7). On the other hand, the word rajas or sometimes mala in the sense of karma matter starts to appear from the Sutrakṛta I onwards: for instance, in the Sutrakṛta I.2.1.15, 1.2.16, 1.8.7 and 1.11.21, in the Uttara II.11, IV.7, M.8 and X.3, and in the Dasavaïkälika II.14, (IV.15, gathas 21 and 25, which however probably belong to a later date) and IX.3.15. It has already been noted that the word karma in the Acara I is used in the sense of action in general, and the same generally holds true with the Sutrakṛta I. However the word karma occurring in the Uttara (excluding of course the chapters that belong to later periods) and Da'savaikalika very often becomes difficult to be understood in the sense of For Private & Personal Use Only