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The Teachings of Arhat Pārśva and the Distinctness of his Sect
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The animate beings are activity-oriented, the inanimate substances are changeoriented or dynamic in nature.
The animate beings have two types of experience, of pain and pleasure. Only those who can get rid of violence and other evils including wrong viewpoint will have the feeling of bliss. A Nirgrantha, who eats only inanimate things, will meet emancipation and thus will end the transmigratory cycle,
In the second version of this chapter the following additional concepts are also mentioned: (1) The motion is of two types: (i) self-motivated and (ii) generated by external
factors. (2) Whatsoever a person experiences, it is due to his own, and not due to other's
deeds. (3) Those who observe the cãturyāma (the fourfold ethical code beginning with
non-violence and ending with non-possession) will be free from the eight-fold
karmas and will not be reborn in the four yonis or generic categories. The essence of the doctrines and ethical teachings of Pārsva as embodied and expositioned in the Isibhāsiyāiñ may be thus summarized:
(i) The world is eternal with no creator behind it. (ii) Permanence in change is the essential nature of the world. World is
dynamic in disposition. It consists of the five astikāyas, existentialities. (iii) Substances are of two kinds, animate and inanimate. (iv) The animate possesses an upward motion; the inanimate (by law of
gravity), downward motion. (v) The motion is of two kinds: (a) self-motivated and (b) directed by
external factors. (vi) The gati or transmigratory motion of animate beings is due to their own
karmas, while the motion of matter is due to its own dynamic nature
and inertia. (vii) The karmas are of eight types. (viii) Evil and non-restraint activities consequence in pain and in the cycle
of births and deaths. (ix) Those who indulge in passions and violence cannot achieve the eternal
peace and bliss. (x) Liberation can be achieved through the observance of four yāmas, self
restraints.
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