________________
The Sūtrak rtänga 1.1.2.29 says : manasā je paussanti puttam tesi na vijjai : a man who bears ill-will, his mind is not pure. In the Sūtrak rtânga 1.1.1.3 it is said "If a man kills living beings or causes other men to kill them, or consents to their killing them his iniquity will go on increasing." The Sūtrakrtānga 2.2.4-23 specifies thirteen kinds of sinful actions; of these, sins committed for one's selfish interests, lying, stealing, deception, greediness, taking revenge are all acts rooted in the mind and lead to karman, But sins done through accident and error of sight (leading to error of fact) and not involving the mind actively, also attract bad karman. The text cited above states : “We now treat of the fourth kind of committing sins, called accidental”. Intending to kill a deer, a person actually kills another bird or animal, Here instead of one (being) he hurts another, therefore he is called) an accidental killer. Or while cutting weed grasses, a man cuts rice plant. "Here instead of one (plant) he hurts another, therefore he is called) an accidental killer. Thereby the bad karman accrues to him”.
In the fifth kind of sins, a person mistaking a friend for an enemy through error of sight, kills the friend by mistake. Likewise, a person kills someone mistaking him for a robber. The Sūtrak rtânga 1.1.2. 26-29 attacks the belief of other schools that he who commits violence without knowledge (abuho jam hisai) suffers from that karma only nominally and that such an evil deed does not mainfest itself or ripen ; it calls such action (done in ignorance) as one of the three evil fetters (āyānā). Again in the Sūtrak stānga 2.4.1 it is said that "though a fool does not consider (that even if he is not conscious of) the operations of his mind, speech and body.. still he commits sins". This is asserted in the face of the contrary view said to have been held by an opponent of Mahavira viz. that "there can be no sin, if (the perpetrator of an action does not possess sinful thoughts, speech and functions of the body...if he does not consider the operations of mind, speech and body..." (Ibid., 2.4.2). Mahavira repeats to his opponent "... there is sin, though the perpetrator of the action) does not possess sinful thoughts"... (Ibid., 2.4.3).
The Sūtrak rtānga11 2.6.26-27 sets out with disapproval the Buddhist view that a person cannot be guilty of murder if he has committed it as a result of mistake of fact. The Sūtra says: "If (a savage) thrusts a spit through the side of a granary, mistaking it for a man ; or through a gourd, mistaking it for a baby, and roasts it, he will be guilty of
11 Jacobi, Jaina Sutras.
90/JAINTHOLOGY
