Food And Freedom

Author(s): Paul Dundas
Publisher: Paul Dundas

Page 22

182 Paul Dundas
being of infinite bliss and energy does not experience such discomfort, nor is he attempting to avoid accidental or premature death (apavartana), for a being in his last existence cannot fall victim to that. The excuse that eating enables the kevalin to point out the way to liberation to others is totally improbable because the kevalin with his infinite energy is quite capable of doing this without eating.
154
It is in the last portion of his account that Prabhācandra makes his most telling points. As we have already seen, the traditional Śvetämbara list of the miraculous attainments of the kevalin includes the fact that he eats and excretes food unseen by human eye. That none of the Śvetāmbara polemicists mention this suggests that it may have been a cause of some difficulty to them in the debate and certainly Prabhācandra is well able to demonstrate the ludicrous inconsistency of this situation. The conventionalised surroundings in which the tirthankara (and it is this figure and not the ordinary kevalin, that Prabhācandra would appear to be now talking about) promulgates the law is called the samavasaraṇa, an assembly of divine beings, humans and animals who have come together to hear the tirthankara preach and where a temple (devacchandaka) has been magically created to which, acccording to the Svetämbaras, the tirthankara can withdraw and stay at his leisure (yathasukham aste). But what possible reason, asks Prabhācandra, does he have for retiring there? He does not need peace and quiet to facilitate meditation because he does not have normal mental faculties which could be disturbed; besides, a firthankara can only metaphorically be said to meditate. It simply makes no sense to describe a being of infinite bliss and energy taking his ease. 155
The supposition must therefore be that the tirthankara withdraws for some secret purpose. Assuming for the sake of argument that he might be going off to a solitary place to consume food outwith the sight of human eye, Prabhācandra mockingly asks whether he is afraid of being seen or whether he is leaving behind his hungry pupils and, despite his great compassion, slinking off to eat on his own. It might as well be maintained that he consorts with women as to suggest that he behaves in this way.'
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An alternative hypothesis might be that his solitary sojourn in the temple is for the purpose of destroying karma. However, the tirthankara has already destroyed the harming karmas and will easily put an end to the non-harming karmas at the appropriate moment through the fire of 'pure meditation' (sukladhyana) which characterises kevalins. If this were not so, then it would mean that the continuing process of the cultivation of pure meditation would manifest itself in one form in private in the temple and in another form openly in the assembly. Prabhäcandra then combines these two unlikely possibilities. and asks how the tirthankara could destroy the karma which of necessity would accrue at the time of eating. Confession (pratikramana) is the normal way of