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78
Lallanji Gopal
He, who takes any belongings (pariggaham ginhate), whether little or considerable, is contaminated by sinful acts on account of the guilt of stupefication caused by greed (gehimucchāya dosenam)91 (Verse 2). He, who expresses anger (koham), on his own or for another person, is contaminated by sinful acts on account of the chains caused by it (Verse 3).
After this we have a note saying: 'In this manner up to micchadamsaņasalla. 34a This term appears as the last in the list of eighteen papas recognised in the Jaina tradition 34 b and signifies a false philosophy of life.
Verse 4 enumerates as moral impurities (leva) killing a living thing (pāņātivate), saying untruth (aliyavayanım), stealing or taking what has not been given away (adattam), intercourse (mehunagamanam) and amassing property (pariggaham). Verse 5 mentions anger (kohe), conceit (mūno), deceit (māyā), and greed (lobho) as moral impurities which are of various forms or types (bahuviho, bahuvidhavidhie and bahuvidha). Hence, having considered them to be the cause for augmenting sinful acts, one should be a noble seeker of the best goal and should become a wandering ascetic for vigorous efforts 35 (Verse 6). As milk is destroyed after being associated with poison, attachment and malignity are the destroyer of continence (bambhacera) (Verse 7).35a As the best of milk by stupefication is turned into curd, so the sinful acts increase on account of the guilt of greed (Verse 8).*6 The jungle trees in a forest, when burnt by the wild fire, grow again, but, in the case of people exhumed by the fire of anger, it is very difficult to be free from unhappiness (Verse 9).37 Even the fiercely burning fire can be extinguished by water, but the fire of delusion cannot be extinguished by all the water in the sea (Verse 10). 98 He, who has realised the nature of the shackles of birth and death, has broken the (cycle of birth and death and is free from the dust (of action), achieves final beatitude (Verse 11).89
At the end we have a summarised sentence40, the full form of which appears earlier at the end of the first section. The fuller sentence is to be translated thus : 'I say, "Thus becoming enlightened, indifferent (to worldly attachment), freed from sins, restrained, taking all objects to be the same, and a renouncer41, he does not come again for the activities of this (world)."'
We have to discuss the extent to which these passages represent Asita Devala's own words and ideas. According to Schubring the whole text was composed by one single author; the parallelism in the structure of the individual chapters proves this ‘no less than the throughout uniform style and the numerous self-quotations’42 He admires the text as being original and attractive. 43 The charm of novelty' of the text reveals itself when contrasted with the 'uniform creation of contemporary parallel texts which are only more or less cleverly and transparently composed compilations'. Our author has adorned the passages borrowed from the words of the rşis by covering them with the plumage of its own'. This has camouflaged the
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