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216
Yashodhara Wadhwani Shah
This however, is no easy task. We have seen what elaborate prescriptions of right knowledge and faith, along with careful conduct ( manifold samvara, nirjarā, etc. ) religious meditations and contemplations Jainism has prescribed for the purpose. No exact parallels to these can be claimed to occur in the Up.s. Yet we can not either ignore the fact that in BA 6.2.15 and Ch. 5.10. 1-2, travel to brahma-loka via Devayāna ( the flame of fire etc.) and non-return to a new birth is prescribed for those also, who practise faith, truth and austerity ( śraddhā, satya, tapas ) in the forest. Prašno. 1.10 and 15 add to these the practice of brahmacarya and vidyā. Mait. 4.3-4 also speak of removal of sin and obtainment of Sat-tva ( similar to Jaina samyak-tva ?) through tapas. (cf. here Utt. 29,27 : tavenaṁ (kamma)vodāņam : cutting-off of karman is done by austerity).
A cutting or breaking asunder of knots in the heart, said to render a person immortal ( in Katho. 6.15) may likewise have reference to emotional attachments or kaşāyas of Jainism. But the preceding verse, almost similar, has given renunciation of desires as the remedy; and the same is elaborated in BA 4.4. 5-7, which says at the end that a soul, totally freed from desires, abandons his body as (painlessly as ) a snake removes its dead skin. One can not help recalling here Ayar. 2(4) 16,9 : bhujangame junna-tayaṁ! ) ... Again, sitehi bhikkhū asito pariyvae (ibid. 7, i. e. unbourd by others who are bound, (the wise man ) should wander as a mendicant ) has a parallel in BA. 3.5.1 : etaṁ vai tam ātmānam viditvā brāhmaṇāḥ..bhikṣā-caryāṁ caranti. (cf. also Āyār. 1.6.5.5: evam se anihe...pariwvae ),
Katho. 4.2 admonishes that “ the childish-mined go after outward pleasures; they (thus ) walk into the snare of wide-spread death. The wise, however, recognising life eternal, do not seek the stable among things which are unstable here”. One could very clearly discern here the hint that one must constantly keep in mind the non--eternal nature of worldly things howsoever desirable they may appear. This is certainly comparable with the aniccānuppeha of Jaina canons. And ātmā vā are śrotavyo mantavyo nididhyāsitavyah (in BA. 2.4.5 after declaring its unperishing nature ) could form the parallel of another of the anuprekşās.
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