Sambodhi 1973 Vol 02

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

Page 41

Evolution of the Jaina Treatment of Ethical Problems
grant for argument's sake that the passages construed by us as condemning the life of a householder as such in fact condemn the life of a non-Jaina householder in the spirit of the latter-day Jaina texts. Even then the fact remains that these old texts confine their treatment of practical problems to the sphere of the ethical performance--without ever touching the sphere of cultic performance. It is only in the Bhagavatisūtra that we first find mentioned two cultic performances-both supposed to be undertaken by a Jaina householder : one of them is called Samayika, the other Pausadha, The reference to Samayika occurs in a rather curious dialogue where the question is raised that if while a Jaina householder is performing Samayika his wife 1s kidnapped by someone then whose wife it is that has been kidnapped. The answer forthcoming 19 that it is this Jaina householder's own wife that has been kidnapped, the reason being that even if he declares that things of the world do not belong to him he is not yet free from an attachment to these things From this it becomes clear that Samayika is conceived as a sort of cultic performance during which a householder makes declaration to the effect that things of the world do not belong to him. But it also seems clear that in the dialogue in question the householder performing Samayika is being subjected to ridicule. For to hint that even while saying that certain things do not belong to him a man is yet attached to these things is to imply that this man is uttering falsehood. And that is something intriguing-particularly in view of the fact that a Buddhist canonical passge ridicules on this very ground a Jaina householder performing Pauşadha (in the course of which too one perhaps makes a declaration of the type here under consideration). Perhaps, since the very begininng were the Jaina authors maintaining that only a physical detachment from the things worldy--such as is undertaken by a monk-is something worthwhile; but in due course they also began to attach importance to the process of one mentally withdrawing oneself from one's worldly possessions. And in the Bhagavatz dialogue in question the two attitudes are present somewhat in a state of un-reconciliation with one another. As we shall presently see, the later authors could evolve a more satisfactory concept of Samayika. As for Pauṣadha, a Bhagavati narrative speaks of it as being of two types, one accompanied by a day-time fasting, the other by a day-time consumption of delicacies. Both the types involve a night-time dharma-jagara ( pious wakefulness) which therefore seems to have formed the kernel of this performance. We are not informed about the details of dharma-jagara but it should be natural to suppose that it meant some sort of preoccupation with things religious-may be listening to or talking about them. The noteworthy thing is that even other Canonical texts do not speak of any
35