Book Title: Harmless Soul
Author(s): W J Johnson, Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Previous | Next

Page 217
________________ Kundakunda: The Pravacanasāra 203 karma to an end. The classical idea of liberation achieved through the stoppage and shedding of material karman through tapas fades before Kundakunda's idea of release through realisation of the pure self - the ātman whose svabhāva cannot, by definition, be tainted by karman - through meditation. This is made even clearer at Pravacanasāra 2:67, which reads: Free from inauspicious manifestation of consciousness, not joined to auspicious (manifestation of consciousness) towards other substance, let me be indifferent (i.e. neutral); I meditate on the self whose self is knowledge.65 Introducing this gāthā, Amrtacandra characterises it as a teaching of the destruction of the causes of conjunction with other substance'. 66 By becoming indifferent to paradravya, one is released from aśuddhopayoga and becomes intent upon the self alone - a state synonymous with śuddhopayoga.67 The next gāthā (2:68) takes the form of a performative or prescriptive statement, prefaced by the nominative singular of the first person pronoun, with regard to paradravya. In other words, it gives what seems to be a paradigm of meditational practice: I am neither body, nor mind, nor speech, nor the cause of these, (I am) neither the agent, nor the instigator, nor the approver of doers / actors. This adds up to a radical reinterpretation of the gupti doctrine of classical Jain thought.68 Freedom from 65 Cf. pp. 181ff., above, on Pravac. 2:67, etc. 66 Faddegon's trans., p. 127, of: paradravyasamyogakāraṇavināśam; cf. TD on 2:65. 67 Paraphrase of the TD on Pravac. 2:67. 68 See above; TS 9:4; JPP p. 247. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372