Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

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

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compare it with the content of the twelvefold tapas evolved in later ages. (Naturally, the nature and meaning of tapas practised by the monks at MV's time underwent a conspicuous change in later times.)
The idealism of akarma in the context of the doctrine of non-violence is of course meant in the sense of the maximum capacity of non-action that a monk can perform while surviving and spreading the message of salvation. And the Jainas had to make an unavoidable concession in this respect in that any violence done unintentionally goes without blame. Thus the Sutrakrta 1.1.2.25 says that a mere intention of violence unaccompanied by physical action or the violence committed without intention is blameless (aviyattam khu savajjam), even though touched (possibly by the efficacy of revenge). 1.1.2.28 of the same text argues that a mendicant who (unknowingly) eats the flesh of a son killed by his father is not defiled by guilt. However, the Acara 1.5.4.158 reads that if any living being coming in contact with one s body is killed (without intention or from mere carelessness), he has to suffer a due fruit in this life; and if it is done intentionally, he has to perform viveka. MV himself probably thought that unintentional violence also bears its fruit, which however does not cause one to take rebirth in samsara.
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Viveka would have been imposed upon a convict so that the sin already committed by him could be purified by performing due punishment, as was commonly believed in those days. Viveka is thus a type of punishment, however how it was actually practised is difficult to evince. (Also the content and meaning of viveka enumerated as one of the six types of internal tapas developed in later times are ambiguous in the context.) As to the forms of punishment, kayavyutsarga emerges, for instance, in the Dasavaikälika V.91, and pratikramana in the Dasavaikālika V.88. (Twice daily pratikramana occurring in the Uttara XXVI belongs to the fifth canonical stage.) We should mention in connection with this that samayika also makes its appearance, for instance, in the Sutrakrta 1.2.2.17 and 20. (Incidentally, the Ava'syakasutra in six chapters in its present form, each obviously developed independently in the long course of canonical age, is the product of the fifth stage.)
Group wandering provides better chances of procuring food which is the basic need of monks, and this might have been the primary cause for them to have begun wandering together. Group wandering inevitably involves far more chances of committing arambha than wandering alone. The livelihood of worldly passions such as love and hatred, talkativeness and quarrels, etc. is increased. It was thus best to keep a monk alone away from kaşaya-producing conditions. Buddha also insisted upon resorting to solitary life from his own experiences which tempered him to be self-reliant in order to accomplish his final awakening. However, the idealism of lonely wandering could not hold for long due to other historical circumstances.