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38
Rishibhashit : A Study
name Bahuk. But none of these mentions indicate that these names had any connection with the Bahuk mentioned in Rishibhashit. This matter is subject to further investigation and scholars should do some efforts in this direction..
15. MADHURAYAN
Madhurayan Arhat Rishi is the preacher of the 15th chapter of Rishibhashit.156 He has not been mentioned anywhere else in Jain or Buddhist traditions. As such it is difficult to give any comment about his life and personality.
In this chapter many words have been used in some special context and meaning. As long as those words are not clearly understood the preachings of Madhurayan cannot be properly apprehended. In the context of the meaning of this chapter neither the Sanskrit commentators are clear nor the Hindi translation, based on these, by Manohar Muni is any clearer, The Hindi and English translations in this edition are also not without doubts. Although Schubring in his notes and Manohar Muni in his explanations have done efforts to clarify the meanings, they have also accepted that the subject in the chapter is not clear.
in my view some particular words will have to be understood in order to elaborate the subject of this chapter. The three words that require an elaborate explanation are 'Sata-dukkha', 'Asata-Dukkha' and 'Santam', As far as 'Sata-dukkha' is concerned,' everyone including the Sanskrit commentator, has accepted that it means woe (dukkha) born out of pleasure (sukha). Here sukha should mean the desire for pleasure. So the meaning of Sata-dukkha is the woe born out of the desire for pleasure. A person who has craving for mundane pleasures can be termed as the one plagued with Sata-dukkha. In other words the craving for pleasure itself is Sata-dukkha.
Asata-dukkha is opposite of this, that is the suffering which naturaly comes because of being desireless. With this meaning of Satadukkha the answer to the first question of the chapter becomes clear. The question is who attracts dukkha (affliction, which here means the bondage of Karma); the one who is plagued with woes born out of the desire for wordly pleasures, or he who suffers sorrows desirelessly. The answer is : He who is mad after the lust for wordly pleasures attracts affliction. One who remains desireless, even inspite of being surrounded with natural sufferings does not attract afflictions or does not enter into bondage of Karma. In fact, the desire for pleasure is the invitation to woe.
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