Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

Author(s): Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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150 Jain Philosophy in Historical Outline
the ten virtues of self-control (samyama) truthfulness (sunrta), purity (sauca), chastity (brahma), greedlessness (akiñcanatā), asceticism (tapas), forbearance (kṣanti), mildness (mārdava), sincerity (rjutā) and emancipation (mukti) can alone help in the achievement of the highest goal.
Asrava: All kinds of Jivas, as we have seen above, have to suffer the worldly experiences in diverse spheres of life on account of the Karma they acquire individually. We have also seen that Karma is the transformation of subtle matter. It is constituted by certain sorts of infra-atomic particles of matter. The influx of these Karma particles into the soul is called Asrava in Jainism. Just as water flows into a boat through a hole in it, so also the Asravas represent the channels or modes through which the Karmas enter the soul.
Asrava is broadly classified into bhāvāsrava and karmasrava, the former denoting thought-activities through which the Karma particles enter the soul, and the latter, their actual entrance. The bhavasravas are generally of five kinds, namely delusion (mithyatva), want of control (avirati) inadvertence (pramāda), activities of body, mind and speech (yoga) and passions (kaṣāyas). Each of these categories has further been subdivided. Thus mithyatva is of five kinds, viz., ekanta or false belief unknowingly accepted and uncritically followed, viparita or uncertainty in the nature of truth, vinaya or retention of a belief knowing it to be false, samsaya or doubt and ajñāna or ignorance. Avirati also is of five kinds-himsa or violence, anṛta or falsehood, caurya or stealing, abrahma or incontinence and parigrahākankṣā or desire to possess things of other persons. Likewise pramāda is of five kinds-vikatha or bad conversation, kaṣāya or passions, indriya or sensuality, nidra or sleep and raga or attachment. The subdivisions of yoga and kaṣāya we have enumerated above.1
Just as the bhāvāsravas are concerned with the internal aspects, so also the dravyasravas are concerned with the externals. Both of these make room for karmasrava, i.e., actual entrance of the Karma matter into the Jiva. The actual influx of Karma affects the soul in eight ways in accordance with which it is divided into eight kinds, namely jñānāvaraniya, darśanāvaranīya, vedanīya, mohanīya, āyu, nāma, gotra and antaraya. The influxes take place only as a result of the bhāvāsrava or the reprehensible thought activities, or changes (pariņāma) of the Jiva. There are forty-two ways through which the said process
1DS, 29-30 also Vrtti.