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12
Joharimal Parekh
activities and engages himself in good ones and thereby the monk annihilates boundless fierce bondage."17
"Gautama do not be Pramatta even for a moment."18
The Acārānga-sutra insists times out of number on intense efforts on the part of aspirants of liberation ( see 78, 97, 111, 157, 173, 195, 155, 129 ) and so also the Sūtrakrtānga I. (sec. 2 (11,68); 6 (9); 8 (11); 11 (35); 15 (22) ]. In Ācārānga the hammer has fallen heavily - 17 times directly, plus many a times indirectly on Pramāda ( see 33, 65, 85, 106, 107, 108, 109, 123, 133, 152, 156, 158, 197, 230-232, 321 ).
Inspite of all that some people take a purely technical position and say that every activity means bondage and hence should be avoided. But surely it is a suicidal view, totally disregards the bright avenues open in this human life and closes all doors of spiritual progress entirely on theoretical grounds. These impractical people forget the more important principle that unless one makes efforts with full vigours, he can not free himself from bondage — motion is dharma and station is adharma. More so, all throughout his life one can not remain even for a moment without Yoga, i.e., activities of body, mind and speech except for a negligible period of few seconds just before the event of final emancipation. Gitā also supports this view point in 3 (5) and 18 (11) and says: "Na hi dehabhrtā sakyam tyaktum karmāņi aśeşatan".
For all practical purposes one can not save himself even for a moment from bondage if such a microscopic strict view is taken (Acārānga 174, 203; Thāņānga 704; Bhagavati 5/7 (30-36). Even for sustenance of this life and even for attaining salvation activities are necessary19 and therefore 'Parijñā' alone has been recommended (Tattha khalu bhagavatā parinnā paveditā). Parijñā does not mean whole-sole rejection of activity or objects. The word has a heavy knowledge content and the compound should be analysed as renunciation based on knowledge. Something discriminative, as we have seen that nothing is free from bondage altogether, hence like a shrewd businessman we should reconcile the situation -- be rational and practical and weigh the consequences of the proposed activities of body, mind and speech in terms of the net resultant loss of bondage. An activity with less accumulation and more annihilation of Kārmic matter is to be preferred to the one with more accumulation and less annihilation. This business like approach has been approved in discussion with Gośālaka :
Without incurring new bondage and while annihilating the old ones and by
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