Mahavira His Life and Teachings

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Luzac and Co UK

Page 83

76 MARĀVĪRA : HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS individual existence after death and the efficacy of all funeral rites performed for the benefit of the deceased person
The types of akriyāvāda mentioned in the Sūtrakrtānga are as follows
(1) There are these five gross elements · earth, water, fire, wind, and air From them arises an intelligent principle called ātman On the dissolution of the five elements living beings cease to exist
Everybody, fool or sage, has an individual soul These souls exist as long as the body exists, but after death they are no more. There are no souls which are born again
There is neither virtue nor vice, there is no world beyond On the dissolution of the body the individual ceases to be
There are individual souls. They experience pleasure and pain, and at death they lose their state of life 2
(2) When a man acts or causes another to act, it is not his soul (ātman) which acts or causes to act
* Jacobi, Jaina-Sūtras, II, pp 236-239
2 Sūtrakrtānga, I, I I. 7, 8, 12, I, I 2 Jaina-Sūtras, II, pp 236-239
3 Ibid , I, I I. 13
I, I, 1. 1. 18.