Doctrine of Liberation in Indian Religion

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

Page 55

THE DOCTRINE OF THE SELF
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The self is a dynamic entity in the sense that it is the doer of deeds and enjoyer of their fruits. Another feature of self is its luminosity. It illuminates the body in which it dwells. A most important characteristic of the self is knowledge (jñāna). The Ācārāņgasūtra teaches as follows:
"The self is the knower (or experiencer), and the knower is the self. That through which one knows is the self. With regard to this (to know) it (the self) is established. Such is he who maintains the right doctrine of self.”50
Kundakunda in his Pravacanasāra expounds the view that the self is subject to pariņāma, 'change' or 'transformation'. This reminds us of the Sāmkhya doctrine of transformation. According to the Samkhya theory the physical as well as the mental world is a transformation (pariņāma) of prakrti, the primordial matter. In Vijñānavāda also a kind of parināmavāda or theory of transformation, which is radically different from the above, is found. Thus Vasubandhu in his Trimśikā describes this whole world as a triple process of transformation of consciousness (vijñānaparināma) into āla yavijñāna, manovijñāna and prav ttivijñāna.51 Acording to Kundakunda the self is subject to transformation with regard to knowledge, action and fruit; therefore the self should be understood as consisting of knowledge (jñāna), action (karma) and fruit (phala).52 In the next verse the author says that a śramaņa realizes the pure self when he knows that the self alone is the agent, the instrument, the deed and the fruit; such an ascetic becomes free from passions.53 According to Kundakunda the self is without material forms and colour but it perceives and knows material forms and colours and their qualities also.54 This does not however mean that the essential nature of the self is involved in actions like perception etc. Kundakunda says that it is the states of consciousness which are influenced by passions and therefore are involved in actions :
"The self effects the transformation of its consciousness and is directly responsible for the transformation; it is not the agent of all those conditions that constitute the material substances and their transformations. In reality the self is never an agent of
50. Ācārāmgasūtra, 1.5.5; SBE, vol. XXII, p. 50. 51. Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi, verse 17. 52. Pravacanasāra, II. 33. 53. Ibid., II. 34. 54. Ibid., II. 82.