Sambodhi 1973 Vol 02

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

Page 33

Evolution of the Jaina Treatment of Ethical Problems
floating on water, In case the holes are left uncovered water is bound to gain entry into the boat this corresponding to the process of asrava; in case the holes are properly covered water will be denied entry into the boat this corresponding to the process of samvara; in order to render the boat safe that water ought to be drawn off which had entered into it before the holes had been properly covered this corresponding to the process of nirjara. And yet the fact remains that within the body of Jaina doctrines the concept of karmic physical particles is a rather late growth. Let us therefore trace the 'pre-history'- so to say - of the classical Jaina version of the doctrine of transmigration.
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On various grounds which need not be detailed just now - the Acarangasūtra I Śrutaskandha and the Sutrakṛtangasūtra I Śrutaskandha prove to be the oldest available Jaina texts. And in these texts the problem of transmigration and mokşa is touched upon time without number. Thus they tell us as to what evil acts lead to one's involvement in the cycle of transmigration and what good acts lead to one's release from this cycle. Occasionally, they also come out with the view that an extra-corporeal soul it is that undergoes transmigratory cycle and attains mokṣa. (The very first chapter - out of nine of the Acaranga I Śrutaskandha is in a way an elaborate vindication of the reality of an extra-corporeal soul), But the mechanism of transmigration and that of mokşa are nowhere worked out in details in these texts. Thus unlike the latter-day classical Jaina texts dealing with the problem of transmigration and mokşa, our present two texts do not describe how as a result of one's acts likely to bear fruit at a later occasion the karmic particles of an appropriate description seek to gain entry into one's soul, how these particles remain attached to one's soul till the fruit in question is actually reaped, how these particles are purged out of one's soul once this fruit is actually reaped, etc. It is only in the Bhagavattsutra that beginnings of a theory of karmic physical particles make their appearance. Thus this text works out the details of this theory chiefly within the framework of a triad of concepts - viz. bandha, vedana, and nirjara: Here bandha stands for the process of the karmic physical particles gaining entry into a soul, vedana for the process of this soul experiencing the fruit concerned, nurjara for the process of these particles being purged out of this soul; (on a few occasions the word
bandha is replaced by asrava' and, picturesquely, asrava might be said to stand for the process of the karmic physical particles rushing towards a soul, bandha for the process of these particles actually getting attached to this soul, but from the standpoint of strict theory the two words are absolutely synonymous). However, two latter-day extensions of the theory of karmic physical particles are almost foreign to the Bhagavatīsūtra and this as follows :
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