Jain Moral Doctrine

Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Jain Sahitya Vikas Mandal

Page 60

CHAPTER V
CARDINAL VIRTUES
In our considerations of the Asrava, Bandha, Samvara and Nirjarā, references have been made here and there to some moral practices which are recognised to be of special merit and which require consequently a special study. Of the thirty-nine kinds of the Sāmparāyika Asrava or mundane in-flow, five are mentioned as Avrata i.e., due to the non-practice of the five vows; in fact, when we shall consider the nature of these vows, and their supplements and their complements, we shall see that all these thirty-nine causes of the Asrava are connected with non-practice or imperfect practice of these vows. We find that the six activities which cause the inflow of the knowledge-obscuring and the faith-obscuring Karma's are practically infringements of the vow of 'truthfulness' in some form or other. The six causes, inducting the Asātā-vedanīya or painbearing Karmas, similarly appear to be due to the non-culture of the spirit of 'renunciation'. The Āyu-karma which is responsible for the span of life, of a celestial, a human, a subhuman or an infernal being is stated to be introduced by the non-observance of the Vratas and the Silas. The Antarāya-karma is obviously introduced by the Atiçāra or the trangressions of the vow of ‘non-violence'. In the same manner, the acts which cause the inflow of the Nāma, the Mohaniya and the Gotra Karma's in their Aśubha or bad forms are essentially connected with the infringements of the vows or the subvows. We have seen how Avirati or the non-observance of the vows s one of the prime causes of the Bandha or the soul's bandage. On the other hand, we are told that the Sātāvedaniya, i.e., the Karmas that yield pleasurable feelings are introduced by acts of compassion, self-control etc., which acts are but the Vratas or the Šilas in some