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

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 89
________________ Umāsvāti's Jainism ' 75 which are thought to generate it.) As P.S. Jaini puts it: By undertaking the aparigrahavrata, a Jaina layman systematically reduces his tendencies to fall into such passions; thus he protects his soul from increased karmic entanglement and lays the groundwork for complete nonattachment, the path of the mendicant. 73 How does this change in attitude towards the householder relate to the development of the kaşāya doctrine? The following hypothesis is offered. In the early karma doctrine, only one train of events is necessary for karmic bondage: parigraha or lobha (including the other passions) causes himsā, and himsā causes bondage. (It should be noted that parigraha is by no means the only way in which himsā can be brought about, but it is seen as being the major threat to the monk, and the one most difficult to counteract.) In the developed doctrine, presented by Umāsvāti, for bondage to take place (i.e. for karma to attach itself to the jīva) there have to be two separate occurrences: 1) there has to be yoga ('activity') which causes an influx of karmic matter, and 2) there has to be kaşāya which causes that karmic matter to adhere to the jīva. Thus 'greed' (lobha or parigraha) - the passion subsuming all others in the earliest texts -, which was previously seen as being synonymous with a particular way of life (the householder's), becomes in the later doctrine (under the technical term 'kaṣāya') an internal process or attitude. From being the defining characteristic of a particular way or condition of life, it comes to denote anattitude towards life; the emphasis is shifted from the external to the internal, from the social to the individual. In effect, renunciation is partially internalised. 73 JPP p. 178. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372