Doctrine of Liberation in Indian Religion

Author(s): Shivkumarmuni
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERATION IN INDIAN RELIGIONS
karma is at the root of the cycle of birth and death or samsāra. It is karma which envelops the real nature of the self and causes great changes in it. Karma clings to the self due to two impellent forces of love (rāga) and hatred (dveşa). Ignorance (avidyā) is at the root of rāga and dveșa. The Jaina texts3 enumerate the following five causes of bondage (bandhana) :
(i) mithyādarśana, perversity of vision or wrong faith; (ii) avirati, lack of renunciation; (iii) pramāda, spiritual inertia or carelessness; (iv) kaşāya, passions, and (v) yoga, activities of mind, body and speech causing vibrations
in the self. In Jainism the notion of mith yātva is, generally speaking, similar to the notion of avid ya in other systems of Indian thought. The terms, mithyātva, mithyādarśana, mithyādssti, darśanamoha and moha are used synonymously in the Jaina texts. All these terms mean false belief, perversity of vision or wrong notion.
As to the nature of mithyātva, under its influence one accepts the evil (adharma) as the good (dharma), wrong path (amagga) as the right path (magga), non-self (ajīva) as the self (jīva), the sinner (asāhu) as saint (sāhu), the unemancipated (amutta) as emancipated (mutta), and vice versa. Doubt, desire, repulsion and admiration of other creeds are the basis of mith yātva. Mithyātva is the root cause of all evils in worldly life; the self under the influence of mithyātva always thinks 'I am this', 'it is mine'; this kind of thinking leads to bondage.
In a similar context Buddhism also understands the notion of perversity (viparyāsa), and classifies it into four wrong attitudes, viz. the wrong notions of accepting miserable as pleasurable, inauspicious as auspicious, impermanent as permanent and non-existent as existent.4
'I am this' and 'this is mine'-these two thought categories bring forth passions like anger etc. The self affected by these passions through activities of the mind, body and speech is chained in the world.
According to Pujyapāda, mithyātva is of five types: (i) ekānta mithyātva, absolutely false opinion accepted
uncritically. (ii) viparita-mith yātva, that state of delusion in which one thinks
that perverted conviction is true.
3. 4. 5.
Tattvārthasūtra, VIII. 1; Samavāyāmga, 5. Visuddhimagga, XXII. 53. Sarvārthasiddhi, VIII, 1.