Agam 26 Prakirnak 03 Maha Pacchakhana Sutra

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Agam Ahimsa Samta Evam Prakrit Samsthan

Page 42

PREFACE : XLI
conduct as well as by having an unwavering faith in the words of the omniscient Jinas. The author says that the aspirant must neither think of living long nor of dying a quick death, but about maintaining his equanimity whenever the death comes. Only then will he be able to liberate. (135-136).
Describing the subject-matter of Mahāpratyākhyāna Prakirnaka, Ācārya Śrī Devendramuniji has said, in his book “Jaina Āgama Sahitya : Manana Aur Mīmāmisă”, that an aspirant liberates in a maximum of seven to eight rebirths by undertaking lower and medium level of monastic practices.34 A look at the original text of this work shows that four means of achieving liberation – knowledge, belief, conduct and penance – and their higher, medium and lower levels of practice have been mentioned in verse 137 of this Prakīrnaka. However, verse 138 that mentions the result of such levels of monastic practice says that an aspirant practising the higher level of monastic practices liberates in that very birth. Again, in verse 139 it is mentioned that the aspirant that carries out such practices at the lower level liberates in a maximum of seven to eight rebirths. Here, in this work, there is no mention of the result of the monastic practices carried out at the medium level. We would like to know as to the basis on which the author, of the book referred to, has said that the practitioner of the medium practice liberates in a maximum of seven to eight rebirths. It is a different matter if he has said this on the basis of a different treatise, but as far as this work is concerned, there is no indication available herein that supports this contention. If we wish to find out the result of the medium practice, we will have to resort to interpolation between the information available
34
Jaina Āgama Sahitya : Manana Aur Mīmānisa, Devendramuni, pp. 390–391.