Mahavira and his Teaching

Author(s): C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti

Page 112

BHAVYATVA AND ABHAVYATVA
105
doctrine of innate (dharmatā-pratilabdha) gotras, particularly its distinction between a śrāvaka a pratyeka-buddha and a bodhisattva, is a further development of this Sautrāntika theory of mokșa-bīja.1
It would be repetitious to enumerate the many points of resemblance between the Buddhist concept of mokşa-bija (or gotra) and the Jain concept of bhavyatva. Mention must be made, however, of the interesting fact that the Mahāyāna texts liken the mokşa-bāja to a seam of gold hidden in metal-bearing rocks, 2 a comparison strongly reminiscent of the Jain metaphor to describe bhavyatva in the Ganadharavāda. The correspondence between the two concepts becomes even more striking when we realize that the Sautrāntika also looked upon the mokşa-bija merely as a potency (cetasaḥ sāmarthyam) which did not automatically produce new kušala-cittas, but like the Jain bhavyatva had to be activated by the presence of favourable circumstances (pratyayasāmagrī-sannidhāne satı).
Assuming that we have found a logical basis for the concept of bhavyatva, we may now examine the nature of its opposite, the abhavyatva. Abhavyatva is declared to be an innate disposition (pārınāmika-bhāva) of those souls who are not bhavyas. Although the literal meaning of the term is 'absence of bhavyatva', it should probably be regarded as a positive force forestalling the presence of bhavyatva. In its function it resembles the mohanî ya-karma. since both hold the soul down in the bondage of muthyātva. 1. tatra prakstistham gotram yad bodhisattvānām
sadāyatanavise şah/ sa tādīšah paramparàgato 'nādıkalıko dharmată pratılabdhah/ tatra samudānitam gotram yat pūrva
kuśalamūlābhyāsāt pratılabdham) . . . tat punar gotram bijam ity ucyate dhâtuh prakļlır ity apil ... asati tu gotre sarvena sarvam sarvathä bodher aprāptır eva veditavyā
Bodhisattvabhūmi, p. 1. (Dutt's edition, Patna 1966). See fn. 3, p. 104. Sautrāntikāḥ punar varņayanti 'bijam sāmarthyam cetaso gotram' iti
.... Sphutartha, p. 583 4. See fn. 2, p. 104. M.M.-14