Laghutattvasphota

Author(s): Amrutchandracharya, Padmanabh S Jaini, Dalsukh Malvania, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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mysteries of the suddha-naya and its usefulness in meditative practices leading to instantaneous self-experience. The first two commentaries are mostly in prose and seek merely to elucidate the teaching in the vigorous and pedantic style characteristic of our author. There are 21 verses in the Pravacanasāra-fikā, but Amộtacandra's poetical eloquence finds real expression only in the commentary on the Samayasāra. This commentary has a total of 278 verses, appearing at the culmination of each section and hence called "pinnacle" (kalasa)58 verses. Since kalasa also means "pitcher", its use here may imply the purificatory purpose of the verses. Being a part of the commentary the kalaša verses must follow the scheme laid out by Kundakunda, and to that extent the poet's freedom in dealinag with his subject matter is inhibited. The Laghutattvasphoța may be considered Amộtacandra's last work, independent and original, devised on an ambitiously large scale equal to his talents, an overflow of the spiritual vision and poetical expression seen in the Samayasāra-kalaša
As seen above in our brief summary of the contents, the author has carried over almost all the major topics of the Ātmakhyāti-fikā into the Laghutattvasphoța. Suddha-naya, jñāna-darśana, agurulaghutva, svabhāva-vibhāva-parabhāva-viveka, upādāna-nimitta-viveka, jñāyakabhāva, karma-jñāna-samuccaya and syādvāda are some of the favourite concepts of our author; he returns to them again and again in his quest for a solid basis upon which to erect the super-structure of realization (anubhava) of the undifferentiated cognition. Unfortunately, this is a structure liable to be shaken by the multitude of the nayas, a harsh legacy of the doctrine of syādvāda. Our author is keenly aware of the difficulty of a Jaina who, advocating the suddha-naya, is liable to be mistaken for a monist Vedāntin or an eternalist Samkhya.59 But he realizes that the doctrines of anekānta and syādvāda are means to an end and must not be allowed to become an 'obsession' (durāśā-ko' nekāntadurāśayā tava vibho bhindyāt svabhāvam sudhih/581) which is detrimental to the true goal. They are taught primarily to instruct the ignorant, to correct his biases and help him grasp the multi-dimensional existent; in this way he may perceive for himself the distinction between the self and the nonself. Having achieved this discriminatory vision (bheda-vijñāna) the aspirant must free himsalf from the tangle of the nayas, not because they are no longer real but because they are not relevant and in fact hinder attainme of undifferentiated cognition. Transcendence of the nayas must of course be gradual, taking the aspirant step by step on, but at the same time away from, the prescribed' path. In this process the boundaries of what is generally called vyavahāra (the 'conventional) and niscaya (the ‘non-conventional) must also change; "that which is to be followed” (upādeya) is constantly relegated to the status of “that which is to be abandoned” (heya) until all dualities in consciousness are trancended in Omniscient cognition. The Jaina