Concept of Paryaya in Jain Philosophy

Author(s): S R Bhatt, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 46

34 Concept of Paryaya in Jain Philosophy known all is known and when all is known one is known"14.. When one paryaya is known in its entirety the complete dravya is known and all other dravyas are also known. As Paul Brunton15 puts it, "How little at any immature state of seeking amid externals do men know that the treasures of bliss, satisfaction and possession are really all in themselves ? They are seeking its stable satisfaction in different transient means and ways. Very few comprehend that their need of the divine self is a permanent one." This realisation comes in the self through the proper knowing and discriminating the self from the non-self. Only when all the deformed paryayas of bhava karma and dravya karmas get extinct then immortality manifests. This means that the svaparyayas of the dravya are manifested in completeness. In the perfection of the svaparyaya ananta catustayas are manifested. The spiritual significance of paryaya can further be studied through different anuyogas. (1) The dravyanuyoga introduces the self to the self and inspires it to give up the foreign and alien paryayas like raga, dvesha, etc. (2) The karananuyoga reveals the play of karmas. Not understanding the svaparyayas and meddling with and indulging in external paryayas causes transmigration, frustration and all tensions of the physique, mind and spirit. Ignorance of paryaya is at the root of the worldly-sojourn. (3) The carananuyoga lays stress on the renunciation of all that is not one's own. When one knows that only the svaparyayas of knowing and seeing are one's own, he is not prepared to accept anything other than his own self. In other words, he is a Yogi and is contented in being in his own self, and so in carananuyoga too the paryaya of knowledge, knowing oneself, is termed as renunciation. From the prathananuyoga or dharmakathanuyoga he is happy to know that since beginning-less time infinite selves have known their true selves only through their true paryayas. It is rightly said, 'Change your attitude and the world changes. We are the architects of our own paryayas and our own life. So it is important that we exert to make our knowledge and knowing right in our paryaya, through our paryaya. As