Family and Nation

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya, A P J Abdulkalam
Publisher: Harper Publications India

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THE DYNAMICS OF INDIAN CULTURE
Kundakunda, Umasvati and Siddhasena Divakara are three thinkers whose basic ideas set the trend for later thinkers. Kundakunda belonged to the second or third century AD. He was a pioneering Digambara thinker from South India. A total of eighty-four works on various themes are ascribed to Kundakunda, of which fifteen are extant. Three of these, all written in the Prakrit language, may be said to be philosophical masterpieces. These are the Pancastikayasara (Essence of the Five Existents), the Pravacanasara (Essence of the Scripture) and the Samayasara (Essence of the Doctrine).
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The Pravacanasara is an elementary work dealing with the Jain substances (excluding time because it does not occupy any spatial points) and the fundamental truths, to which two additional categories are added, namely the meritorious and non-meritorious acts related to Karma (punya and paap).
The Pravacanasara is an insightful work whose three sections clearly delineate its scope: knowledge, the objects of knowledge, and conduct.
The Samayasara is an illuminating work dealing with the nature of the soul and its contamination by matter, and whether the soul's intrinsic nature is in any way affected or changed through Karma bondage in so far as it is the doer of activities. An attempt is made to reconcile these problems, solutions to which depend on the standpoint from which one approaches the issues.
Both morality and dharma are useful for a society. There is a natural relationship between the materialistic world and the world of sentience. This relationship generates illusion or attachment. Many complex problems of the world are the result of attachment and infatuation. Kundakunda gave us the principle of distinguishing or discriminating (bhedvigyana) in order to demolish the citadel of attachment.