Jain Journal 1998 10

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

Page 23

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JAIN JOURNAL : Vol-XXXIII, No. 2 October 1998 But is it possible at all for embodied beings to keep the material universe away from them? Although Jaina tradition from the absolute and niscaya point of view upholds that it is possible and necessary to have nothing to do with the material universe, yet from a practical point of view one cannot be without the material universe, because the embodied being itself is a combination of mind and body, spirit and flesh. But in what way has one to conduct oneself with the material universe? Is it by domination or by collaboration ? As one with sound knowledge and faith (a Jaina visionary) one chooses the latter namely, collaboration because in domination one is a slave to the passions which is a sure sign of karmic accumulation and the subsequent rebirth and suffering. It is only in collaboration that there can be the attitude of detachment and indifference. Hence Aparigraha vow helps one to achieve this ownership not by quarrel, fighting or domination, but by collaboration. Aparigraha would then mean ownership-bycollaboration. Any possession out of greed and other passions would come under dravya-himsā, i.e. violence for the material world.
Amitagati 78 says that violence is committed for the sake of parigraha. Hence a householder should constantly try to limit his activity to obtain possessions. Ownership can have two results : attachment and aversion. The former manifests itself as a tendency to accumulate (possessing, grabbing etc.) and the latter as violence. Ownership is in possession of land, house, jewels, money, livestock, servants and other luxury items. 79 The attitude of attachment and the desire to accumulate wealth are present when one is seen to be extremely sad at a loss incurred in some transaction, hoarding grains and other items to sell them at higher price at a later date, overloading animals and extracting more work from servants etc.80 It is also seen when one takes things that are not one's own or when nor giveni dealing with illicit bossiness,82 indulging in adulteration use of false weights and measures 3 and writing false statements or forgery.84 78. Dasavaikālikasūtra, 6.20, Arya Sayyambhava, tr. and notes by K.C.
Lalwani, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1973. 79. Caritrasāra of Camundarāya, Manikacandra Digambara Jaina
Granthamala, No. 9, Bombay. 1917. p. 12. 80. Ratnakarandakasravakācāra or The Householder's Dharma, 62, Ācārya Sri
Samantabhadra, with comm. of Prabhācandra and trans, into English by
Champat Raj Jain, The Jaina Parishad Publishing House, Bijnor, U.P. 1931. 81. Ibid., 57. 82. Pujyapāda on Tattvarthasūtra, 7.27. Sarvarthasiddhi Tr. Reality. S.A. Jain,
Viraseva Sangha, Calcutta, 1960. 83. Tattvārthasutra, ibid., 7.22; Ratnakarandakasrāvakācāra, 58. 84. Upāśakadasanga, 1.46, with comm. of Abhayadeva, ed. with tr. by Hoernle,
Bibliotheca Indica, No. 105, Calcutta, 1890.