Jain Journal 1997 04

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

Page 21

JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXI, No. 4 April 1997
By the expression hundred thousands of principal births (yonipamukha-satasahassāni) he means 'fourteen hundred thousands (1,400,000, in the Dulva only 14,000) of principal or best births'; he also believes in other sixty hundreds (6,000, in the Dulva 60,000), and again in other six hundreds, and also in five hundreds of functions (kamma). This nonsensical doctrine he only sets forth for the mere sake of argument. The same is to be said about his expressions that there are five (kinds of) acts as well as three (kinds of) acts, and so forth. But some say that he uses the expression five (kinds of) acts (pancha kammāni) on account of the five organs of sense, and the expression three (kinds of) acts (tīņi kammāni) on account of the threefold distinction of acts done with the body, the speech and the mind (ie., acts, words and thoughts). The terms act (kamma) and half act (addha-kamma), again, express his heretical view that acts done with the body and acts done by speech are (full) acts, while acts done with mind are only half-acts.5
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5. With the statements in the above paragraph may be compared another in the Jain Bhagavati, p. 1237b (Calcutta edition). There can probably be little doubt but that the two sets of statements refer to the same doctrine of Gosala, though the numbers differ somewhat in the Jain account of it. The latter (also quoted and translated by Dr. Leumann in Rokhill's Life of the Buddha, p. 253) runs as follows. Gosāla explaining it to Mahāvira: "According to my doctrine. O venerable Kāsava, all those who have become, or are now becoming, or will hereafter become perfected, have to finish eighty-four hundred thousands of mahakalpas, during which they have, in regular succession, while born seven times as a deva, seven times as a sanjuha (some kind of embodiment). seven times as a sentient being (sannigabbha), and reanimated in seven different bodies, to rid themselves, with reference to the functions (kammani), of the five hundred thousands and the sixty thousands and the six hundreds (of them), and (also) of the three varieties of actions (kamm'amsa, ie., karma-bheda); and having done so, they attain final perfection." From the context, in which the statements occur in the Bhagavati, and in which Gosala relates his 'preexistent' history, there can be no doubt that they refer to the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, though what the exact meaning of them may be I am unable to make out. It is clear, however, from the remarks of both the Buddhist and Jain commentators, that to them they were equally unintelligible. Buddhaghosa declares them to be "non-sensical"; and Abhayadeva says, that, failing an exposition by the older commentators (chumikara), he restricts himself to a mere verbal explanation. At the same time, Abhayadeva's explanation, in one point is open to doubt. The Prakrit text reads pancha kammam sayasahassaïm saṭṭhim cha sahassāïm chhach cha sae tinni ya kamm'amse. Abhayadeva's commentary takes kammani as Skr. karmani (loc. sing., - karmaviṣaye), 'with reference to functions (or actions)', and connects pancha with sayasahassāim as Skr.