________________
144 Harmless Souls matter.41 Similarly, at Pravacanasāra 2.92, it is affirmed that while the soul is the agent of its own nature it is not the agent of all those states composed of material substances. Thus, as the Tattvadīpikā points out, the karman of the soul (taken here in the sense of action done by the soul, but therefore also its karmic matter, what binds it) is its own modification (svapariņāma). The soul does not bring about states of matter - it is not their agent - so they cannot be its karman. For the self, therefore, karman is not modification of matter.42 And Pravacanasāra 2.93 continues with the statement that, although at all times it exists in the middle of matter, the jiva neither grasps, releases, nor brings about material karmas.
These two gāthās (2.92-93)43 therefore offer a flat contradiction to the view (outlined above) that the soul is the instrumental cause of karman, and vice versa. That is to say, it contradicts the doctrines contained in Kundakunda's own niscaya / vyavahāra distinction. Dixit, who also notices this, identifies the 'thesis' put forward in these gāthās as Kundakunda's 'transition-point in his journey away from the traditional stand-point and towards the stand-point of the Samayasāra'.44 Given the apparently disparate nature of much of the Pravacanasāra, this is probably too specific an attribution; nevertheless, the tendency is clear.
Despite the views given at 2.92-93, the next three
41 tatas tasya paramārthād ātmā ātmapariņāmātmakasya bhāvakarmaņa eva kartā, na tu pudgalapariņāmātmakasya dravyakarmanaḥ - TD on Pravac. 2:30. The vyavahāra view is that it is modification of matter which is karman for the atman (pudgalapariņāmātmanaḥ karma, TD on Pravac. 2:97), and that the atman is the agent, appropriator and relinquisher of the modification of matter (pudgalapariņāmasyātmā kartā, TD on Pravac. 2:99; Cf. 2:29 and TD, quoted above).
42 evam ātmanah pudgalapariņāmo na karma - TD on Pravac. 2:92.
43 Cf. Pravac. 2:68-70. 44 Dixit 1971, p. 134.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
