Jain Journal 1980 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 28

100
JAIN JOURNAL
Here "purity” may be further explained as freedom from the dirt of the karmas and tending in a straight direction may mean an unflinching hence steadfast pursuit of the right conduct. Thus everything goes well except the simile of fire going to final extinciton on being sprinkled with ghee, for fire sprinkled with ghee blazes forth. Thus it seems that the term “nivvāņa” does not agree with the simile "ghayasitti vva pāvae".
The commentators, right from the beginning, are aware of this problem. In the Nagarjuni branch the entire structure of the verse has been changed, probably to banish the rebel term "nivvāņa" and to substitute instead, such ones as agree with the simile of fire sprinkled with ghee. They read the verse as follows:
cauddhā sampayam laddhum iheva tāva bhāyate, teyate teyasampanne ghayasitti vva pāvae.
These lines may be translated as:
Having attained the wealth of the four essential factors, they shine forth in this very world, They blaze forth with their spiritual fire, as a fire sprinkled with ghee.
But the language of this verse smacks of artificiality in the above context and the ideas too stagger. The first foot contains a repetition of the idea already expressed in the previous verses which already state that one who has attained human life, knowledge, faith and steadfastness in penances, is protected from the further inflow of karmas and rids himself of the already accumulated ones. From "bhāyate" (shines forth) to "teyate" (blazes) the meaning hovers round the same point instead of making any progress. Moreover the idea of shining forth in this very world does not fit appropriately in the context whereas the idea of “niyvāna"-end of the cycle of birth and death, makes a perfect sequence with stopping the inflow of karmas and getting rid of the accumulated ones, of the previous verse
Commentators, in a bid to reconcile "nivvāna" with the phrase "ghayasitti yva pāvae" have assigned to the former, meanings other than extinction. Santyacarya, and following him, Nemicandracarya and others have interpreted "niyvāņa" of this verse as "jivanmukti". They vouchsafe that "nivvāna" means "mukti". But the same being obstructed