Sambodhi 1973 Vol 02

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 32

26
K. K. Dixit
the first two pertain to the sphere of ontology, the remaining five to the sphere of ethics. For they are jtva, ajiva, asrava, bandha, samvara nirjara and mokşa: and a treatment on Umāsvāti's part of the verities jiva and ajiva is an optological treatment of the animate world and the inanimate world respectively, while a treatment on his part of the verities asrava, bandha, samvara, nirjara and mokşais a treatment of what he considers to be the most fundamental ethical problems. Thus bandha stands for the world career of repeated births and deaths, mokşa for an absolute release from such a career; similarly, astava stands for the plienomenon of the karmic particles of a physical nature seeking to gain entry into an individuat's soul as a result of his good or bad acts, samvara for the phenomenon of these karmic particles being denied entry into an individual's soul, nirjarā for the phenomenon of the earlier entered karmic particles being expelled out of an individual's soul, Even this bare paraphrasing of the words denoting Umāsvāti's five verities pertaining to the sphere of ethics - particularly of the words asrava, sampara and nirjara - bristles with technicalities. It is therefore necessary to clearly trace the origin and historical evolution of these verities.
Since very old days a most conspicuous feature of the Indian thoughtworld bas been the doctrine of transmigartion. True, it is absent in the oldest stratum of Vedic literature, but it does make its appearance in the latest. And as for Buddhism and Jainism, even the oldest literary pieces produced by them are found to exhibit familiarity with this doctrine. Confining ourselves to Jainism, let us examine how on this question matters stand in details.
In the classical Jaina version of the doctrine of transmigration a most conspicuous ingredient is the concept of karmic-particles treated as a type of physical entities, Thus according to the classical Jaina authors, whenever a being performs an act - good or evil - that is to bring about fruit at a later occasion - in this life or some future one — then physical particles of an appropriate description – called "karmic physical particles' or "karmic particles' - get attached to this being's soul and remain attached to it till the fruit in question is actually brought about; after that is done the physical particles in question take leave of the soul in question. It is only in the background of this whole theory that Umāsvāti's concept of asyada, samvara and nirjara can be properly understood. For as we have seen, his asrava stands for the phenomenon of the karmic particles seeking to gain entry into a soul, bis sanyara for the phenomenon of these parti. cles being denied entry into a soul, his nirjara for the phenomenon of the carlier entered karmic particles being expelled out of a soul. The whole thing can be made crystal clear with the help of an illustration advanced 10 the Bhagavaltsūtra - the illustration of a boat-with-hundred-holes