ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 03

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 199

Death in Jaina thought Death is described in the Painnaya-suttaim as the "...last moment of earthly life...when the atoms disintegrate. Even more dramatic, sometimes "[t]he Jains define death as the blowing up (samudghāta) of the atoms of life. Since death is described as a time of destruction, explosive even, it provides a strong impetus for the development of means in Jain practice to prepare physically and psychically to meet this difficult experience in the best way possible. The trauma of death is the main reason not only for the existence Jaina voluntary death practices, but also for the great importance placed on them by the Jaina community, to the point of reverence. It is a practice so highly considered, in fact, that the distinction between layperson and monastic dissolves in the asceticism of such a death. Jaina voluntary death has three aspects: (1) Sallekhanā; "emaciation of body and of passions through external and internal penances", (2) Santhārā, the death-bed or, by extension, the environment in which the practitioner dies, and (3) Samadhimarana, end practices for achieving death in equanimity.
Jaina voluntary death practices are also of crucial importance because the quality of death is the cause of the quality of the experience after death, which can be another birth or even potentially liberation. Since death is the cause what comes afterwards, death is sub-divided into various qualitative levels based on commensurate levels of the state of mind of the dying person. The quality of the death is measured by the spiritual realizations attained from the progressive mastering of restrained conduct. The list is sometimes compressed into two types, or three, and both the Bhagavati Ārādhanā and Uttarādhyayana-Niryukti enumerate and describe seventeen types of death. Mata Jnanamati gives a middling-length list which shows "death ha[ving] five varieties:
(1) Extreme Prudent's Death (Pandita-pandita Marana) (2) Prudent's Death (Pandita Marana) (3) Fool-Prudent's Death (Bāla-pandita Marana) (4) Fool's Death (Bāla Marana) (5) Extreme Fool's Death (Bāla-bāla Marana)5
Caillat, Fasting Unto Death according to Ayāranga-sutta and some Painnayas: p. 115. 2 Ibid. p.48, fn. 15 3 Upadhye, Mahavira and His Teachings, 1943: p.51. 4 Ibid. p.50
Jnanamati Mataji, Jaina Bharati. The Essence of Jainism, 1981: p. 240.
Page 186 of 273
STUDY NOTES version 5.0