Aspects of Jaina Monasticism

Author(s): Nathmal Tatia, Mahendramuni
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 21

behind his twofold mortal body. He is no more subject to metempsychosis being freed from the embodied existence.
From the above account of vidya and avidya as constituting the pathway to liberation, it is evident that the meaning of avidyā underwent a great change in that its original emphasis on activities of social welfare gave way to the pursuit of moral and mental purification in later times. This new ideology comes very near to that of the Jainas and the Buddhists who gave a complete code of monastic life, called samyagdarśana (right view of things), samyagjñāna (right knowledge of things) and samyakcā ritra (right conduct). The Brahmanical emphasis on the householder's life as an essential support to the monastic order continued to enjoy its validity unabated among the Indian religious codes including the code of some sections of the Jainas. The Buddhists, however, had given a new orientation to the householder's life in consonance with their bodhisattva ideal in the light of their pāramitās (perfections in the practice of charity, moral precepts, etc.). It is interesting to note in this connection that Bhadrabahu in his Avasyaka-Niryukti,5 following the ancient tradition, gives a number of illustrations to explain the efficacy of the coordinated cultivation of suya-nāņa (scriptural knowledge) and caraṇa (conduct), leading to nivvāņa (liberation).? A person, well-versed in the scriptural lore, is not capable of attaining liberation in the absence of the practice of austerity and self-restraint.8 Even as a ship, though helmed by an expert captain, is not capable of crossing the great ocean and reaching the land desired by the maritime trader in the absence of a favourable wind, so does a person never succeed in crossing the ocean of samsăra being bereft of the merit of good conduct.9 Even as the blind cannot be gifted with vision by a million lamps, so for a person bereft of good conduct the study of the vast scripture is useless and futile. 10 On the contrary even the scanty study of the scriptures brings enlightenment to a person of good conduct, just as a single lamp is powerful enough to reveal objects to a person endowed with eyesight. Even as a donkey bears in vain the burden of the load of sandal-wood without enjoying its fragrance, so does a learned person bereft of good conduct bear in vain the burden of his knowledge without attaining liberation (which is the resultant of knowledge co-ordinated with good conduct).11 Futile indeed is knowledge without action, and so indeed is action without knowledge; a lame man though endowed with eyesight is burnt to ashes in conflagration (being unable to run away), and similarly a blind man meets the same fate though capable of running.12 It is the conjunction of knowledge and action alone that leads to the desired result; a chariot cannot indeed move by means of a single wheel; the blind and the lame could escape from the conflagration by helping each other out of the forest.13 The Avasyaka Niryukti now concludes that the triad of know
xix