Facets of Jaina Religiousness in Comparative Light

Author(s): L M Joshi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 13

FACETS OF JAINA RELIGIOUSNESS
(i) aniccatta, (ii) asarana (iii) egatta, (iv) annanna, (v) vivitta-samsāra, (vi) kammāsava,, (vii) samvara, (viii) viņijjara, (ix) logavitthara, (x) dhammam suyakkhā. yam-supannattam titthagarehim, (xi) tattacintā, and (xii) bohisudullahā.
The order of enumeration of twelve themes has no vital significance for actual soteriological progress in the spiritual career of a seeker of release. All the themes are important and it is only as a matter of academic interest that we notice the differences in the position of this or that theme in the order of enumeration found in different texts.
Besides the order, nomenclature also reveals some differences in various lists. Thus anuprekşā is also called bhāvanā. The Maranasamahi, the Mahānisiha, the Jñānārņava, the Yogaśāstra, and the Praśamaratiprakarana use bhāvanā instead of anuprekşā; this latter word is found used in a large number of works.
A marked variation is to be noticed in the position of dharma for which the Maranasamāhi uses uttamaguņa. In our first list it is at the end; in the second and the sixth lists it occupies the tenth position; in the third, fourth, and fifth lists it has the eleventh position. In five of the six lists given above bodhidurlabhatva is placed at the end of the series; in the order found in the Tattvārthasūtra and the Kärttikeyānuprekṣā, it has the eleventh position. The position of lokānupreksā also varies in various lists. In first and the third lists it has the tenth position; in the second list it is the eleventh; in the fourth list it is the sixth; in the fifth list it is the seventh while in the sixth list it is the ninth theme. The position of the first two themes, anitya and ašarana, is constant in all the six lists. In the first and second lists samsāra or bhava is the third theme; in fourth, fifth and sixth lists it occupies the fifth position, only in the third list it is placed at the sixth position. The three cardinal concepts of Jainism, viz. asrava, samvara and nirjarā, have, in the first three lists, seventh, eighth, and ninth positions, respectively. In the fourth and fifth lists they occupy eighth, ninth and tenth positions; only in the sixth list, they occur at sixth, seventh and eighth positions. The themes of ekatva and anyatva are placed at the fourth and the fifth positions in the first and the second lists, while in the other four lists they occupy the third and the fourth positions, respectively. The position of aśucitva (also called aśauca, asubhayā) is sixth in the first, second and fifth lists; fifth in the third list, and seventh in the fourth list; it is missing in the sixth list which has tattvacintā instead. It may be confessed here that the socalled six lists given above are selected at random. There is some likelihood of many more variations in the position of each of the twelve themes of soteriological reflection mentioned in a large number of other works not consulted by the present writer. However, philological and historical studies in the formation of the tradition of anupreksās need not detract our attention at this place.