Jain Journal 1983 04

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

Page 36

138
According to the doctrine propounded by the Ajivikas all beings are developed by destiny (niyati), chance (samgati) and nature (bhava)14 as Buddhaghosa would have it for the term parinata means 'differentiated'.15 The term bhāva implies svabhava, i.e. nature which has been exalted to the rank of Niyati. Jnanavimala thus says 'some believe that the universe was produced by svabhava, and that everything comes about by svabhava only.'16 Hoernle takes samgati to mean 'environment',17 but the appropriate translation of the term should be 'lot' or 'chance'.18 It is stated in the Sutrakṛtānga that pleasure or pain is but the work of chance, "it is the lot assigned to them by destiny".19 G.C. Pande nicely represents it in the following-"the process of samsara is like the unalterable working out of a coiled up necessity. In as much as the process of samsara is moving towards visuddhi or the end of misery, it may be considered an evolutionary process. As to the nature of the forces behind it we have the statement 'sabbe..niyatisamgati-bhāvapariņatā....sukha-dukkham patisam vedenti'. According to Buddhaghosa's explanation we have here three co-ordinate determinants of experience, the first being destiny. His own explanation, however, of the second suggests that it should be considered subordinate to the first. The third was, in all probability, regarded as at least the cause of the differential manifestation of Niyati. But if it was not the sole determinant of Niyati, it is clear that part of the Niyati as operative must proceed from a source out side bhava or the nature of things. Thus partly at least the governing necessity of samsara appears to have a transcendental spring-board. The vehement denial of the freedom of will and the non-mention of any divine agency suggest that Niyati itself was considered an ultimate principle. The denial of any reason or cause behind the samkileta or visuddhi of men shows that destiny was considered 'blind', i.e.,-as equivalent to a "causeless necessity" 20
To the Ajivikas, as noted earlier, Niyati is the ultimate cause of this universe and the other two-samgati and bhava are but illusory modifications of the Niyati. 21 Hence the theory of Ajivika salvation has been
JAIN JOURNAL
14niyati-samgati-bhava-parinata, DN, p. 53.
15nana-ppakaratam patta, SV., i.p. 160.
18 kecit svabhava bhavavitam jagad manyante, svabhaven'aiva sarvah sampadyate, Prasna Vyakarana, 7, fol 29.
17ERE, i. p. 261.
18 HDA, p. 226.
19 Su. Kr. i, 1, 2, 2, 3, fol. 30.
20G.C.Pandey, op. cit, pp. 343-44.
21It may be noted that the Ajivikas has called sometimes a believer in the doctrine of causelessness, i.e., ahetukavadin (Jataka, v., p. 228). Since all human activities were ineffectual he was also an akriyavadin, a disbeliever in the efficiency of works.