Facets of Jaina Religiousness in Comparative Light

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

Page 32

THEMES OF SOTERIOLOGICAL REFLECTION
sutra, in another context, states that by such reflection one quickly crosses the very large forest of the fourfold samsara which is without beginning and end. Embodied existence in any form is evil and full of sufferings, dangers, humiliations, privations and disappointments. Having been born once in heavan, one has to fall into lower realms, sometimes even in hells. In short, the entire process of becoming is thoroghly disgusting and painful.
Several passages in the Buddhist texts further illuminate the conception of samsăra and point out the value of cultivating awareness of its evils. "This wheel of old age and death (jarāmaranacakra) is irresistible and very cruel; it tears into pieces all helpless beings, but those devoid of the eye (of wisdom) do not know it."'35 The beings in samsara are separated even while they are in close intercourse just as the clouds in the sky are scattered by the wind.36 Śantideva alludes to the endless wheel of becoming (samsara) in remorseful terms.37 In one of the most remarkable verses in the whole range of the Pali literature, the Buddha refers to his past wanderings in the course of existence-in-flux in the following words: "Through many a birth (in the past) I wandered in samsāra seeking, but not finding, the builder of the house. To be born again and again is indeed miserable."
The following abridged translation of a passage sums up the early Buddhist notion of samsara. "Brethren, this samsara is of an incalculable beginning. Of this process of coursing on (or faring on) and running on of beings, cloaked by nescience and tied by craving, the earlist point is not revealed. If a If a man were to prune out grasses, sticks, boughs, and twigs in the whole of India and collecting them together, should make a pile laying them in a stack of squares saying for each: "This is mother, this is mother's mother. Brethren, the grasses, sticks, boughs, and twigs in the whole of India would be used up, even then the mothers of that man's mother would not be fully counted. Such is the incalculable beginning of this samsara. Brethren, for a very long time you have been experiencing misery, you have been suffering acutely, you have been suffering disaster, and thus the cremation-grounds have been flourishing. Brethren, thus far enough is there for you to be disgusted with things of the world, to Icose all passion for them, enough to be literated therefrom".
34. Uttaradhyayanasutra, XXIX. 22.
35. Dharmasamuccaya, verse 332; cp. Suttanipata, verse 517
36. Dharmasamuccaya, verse 233.
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37. Bodhicaryavatāra, II. 28.
38. Dhammapada, verse 152; cp. Dharmasamuccaya, verse 182
punaḥ punaḥ prajayante cyavante ca punah punah devah sukhapramatta ye teşam sukham alakvatam
39. Samyuttanikaya, vol. II (Nalanda edition), p. 151,