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Mahavira's Words by Walther Schubring
lower [forms of existences] they enter a womb many times without end. So has Mahavira of the Naya family said, the best of the conquerors-so I say,(4)
142
2.
1. By some again it is proclaimed: [6.] "The individual souls,25 when they are reembodied, experience joy [and] sorrow [either in the same form of being as before], or they disappear from their position [in the realm of beings]. 2. This [joy and] sorrow is [however] not effected [by them] themselves, and how could it be effected by others?" Joy or sorrow, whether leading to perfection or not 2-3b. thus some consider it as befalling them inevitably. 3a. "The individual souls experience what is self-effected, not [what is effected] by others": 4. those who speak in this way are fools who regard themselves (as being) wise 'who [themselves] determined by necessity, do not know the determined-through-necessity [and] are without insight.29 5. Thus, some stand aside, they give themselves indeed airs; if they have become monks with this outlook then they do not facilitate a liberation from suffering."
6. They are (like) the quick, wild animal which is without protection: it is afraid of the harmless [and is] unsuspectingly in danger. 7. Out of fear of places which offer refuge [but] unsuspecting of snares, excited through ignorance and fear, it runs here and there. 8. If it should spring over the noose" or slip through below it, it would thus escape the snare, [but] stupid [as
24 The first line of 26 is probable, and the last line of 27 is certainly not authentic because the Curni has only stanza (WB).
25
pudho-jiya prthag-jivaḥ (Pischel § 78). This shortening of the 7 is so far, however, only known in Māhārāştri (jiai = jīvati).
26 Neither of the two meanings of aduvā, or else' and 'however', is appropriate here. Jacobi uses 'and', and Schubring's 'or' requires an uncertain completion. Bollée 1977, p. 80 adds '(then)' before 'however'. See also ibid. p. 97. (WB).
27 For Sil.'s comment on this see Jayatilleke 1963, p. 147, note 2 (WB).
28
tam taha presupposes a jam jahā, but such an antecedent is missing. (For a discussion of the translation "some consider it..." see Bollée 1977, pp. 84f. where also Śil. who defines samgati as 'fate' is quoted. However, as 'chance' or 'coincidence' it is in fact a subcategory of niyati, 'fate' (Basham 1951, p. 226) (WB).)
29
In 3a I am reading sayam kaḍam and separating niyaya niyayam in 4b. If one follows the Curṇi and Sil. and reads na sayam kadam, this place will be: 3a. 'souls... not self-effected.' (This would be a repetition of what was said in stanza 2.) 4. Those who speak in this way (this is the criticism) are fools who regard..., who do not know what is determined through necessity (namely, the effect of deeds) and what not, [and] ... (i.e., niyayâniyayam (which Jacobi takes as a dvandva compound (WB))).
30 Thus the niyativadin. According to stanza 5 the followers of this view would be Nigganthas, even if eccentric (pasattha = pārsvastha or pāśastha), to which at least stanza 1 fits (see Appendix 4 for a different view).
31 bajjha, supposedly means bandha(na). Cp. Hindi bajhna, "to be entrapped" (Schubring's English tr.).
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