Ratnakarandaka Shravakachar

Author(s): Vijay K Jain
Publisher: Vikalp Printers

Page 14

Ratnakarandaka-śrāvakācāra
Uncertainty prevails about the existence of the last two treatises.
Āptamīmāmsā, known also as Devagama or Devāgamastotra, is a treatise of 114 verses which discusses in a philosophical-cum-logical manner the Jaina view of Reality, starting with the concept of omniscience and the attributes of the Omniscient. Devotion to a deity without proper assessment and understanding of its praiseworthiness leads to naught in terms of utility. Blind faith based on traditional values and without the use of own power of discrimination leads to superstitions. Superstitions arise from ignorance and keep the worshipper overwhelmed with expectations and fear, just the opposite of the very purpose of adoration. Adoration is laudable only if it renders tranquility and equanimity to the mind of the worshipper. In the opening verse of Aptamimamsa, Acārya Samantabhadra questions the validity of the attributes that are traditionally associated with a praiseworthy deity and goes on to establish, in Verse 6, the logic of accepting the Omniscient as the most trustworthy and praiseworthy Supreme Being:
You only are such an Omniscient, free from all defects, because your words are not in contradiction with either the reason or the scripture. The proof of non-contradiction of your words lies in the fact that your tenets (about liberation etc.) are unopposed to what has been established through the known sources of knowledge.
After having established that it was certainly possible to attain omniscience, and employing the doctrine of conditional predications (syādvāda), Acārya Samantabhadra faults certain prevailing conceptions that were based on absolutism: existence (bhāvaikānta) and non-existence (abhävaikānta), non-dualism (advaita-ekānta) and separateness (pṛthaktva-ekānta), and permanence (nityatva-ekānta) and momentariness (kṣanika-ekānta). He asserts that the entity (dharmi) and its attribute (dharma) are neither absolutely dependent (āpekṣika) nor absolutely independent (anapekṣika). Only an entity which has general (sāmānya - concerning the substance, dravya) and
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