Sambodhi 1980 Vol 09

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

Page 69

The Main features of Mahavira's contribution
2. 5 mahávratas were formulated in the later days, possibly by or around the time
of the Dasavaikālika, for which see Dixit, Early Jainism, p. 28. Thus the Pärivans also came to possess 4 vows in due course, but Uttara XXIII is a text
of the late canonical age. 3. All the subdivisions of 8 main karma prakstis came to be developed in the
later canonical days, whereby the Jainas made up a rule that a sage is not assured of his qualification for liberation unless kevala Jplāna-darsana dawns to him upon destroying all the 4 types of ghātika karma. Kevala jñana-darinna is the capacity to enable a sage to perceive at any time all the phenomena occuring in the universe in the three tenses of time immediately by his own ātmā without employing the other media of perception, which is an absolute impossibility in reality. Thus the sage who can destroy all the 4 types of ghātika karma is said to be possessed of the knowledge of 14 Purvas which are said to have been lost by the end of the canonical age. This naturally drove the Jaina theoreticians to solve the Jaina problem of liberation in the mythological plane, All this occurred because vaira which is the efficacy of retribution involving violence came to be replaced by karma which is the principle of determining the whole make-up of an individual being. In the context of karma theory, violence therefore became a minor factor to produce certain kinds of karma. MY's original thesis that anärambha is the sole pathway for liberation had to therefore give way to the proposition that the eradication of the total types of karma alone leads to liberation. No change has however taken place in the basic rules of ascetic discipline since the time of My, because karmic eradica
tion is after all effected by the same method of penance alone. 4 Cf. Jacobi : S.B.E., vol. XLV, p. xxxiii. Basham': The History and Doctrines
of the Ajrvikas, p. 5. Dixit : "The Problems of Ethics and Karma Ductrine as
Treated in Bhagavatisatra", Sambodhi, II-3, p. 2 5 In the Sutrakta I occur the expressions like 'kammam khavai', e.g. 1.2, 1. 103,
or 'udippa-kamma', e.g. I. 5. 1. 317. The concepts as such cannot yet be present in this age, for the notion that karma is the matter begins to be expressed
in the form of rajas or in the forms of mala in the Sufrakya I onwards. 6 Basham considers that the animist theory gave rise to the evolution of these
theories. See Basham, ibid., p. 5 7 Gobala had his predecessors, for which see Basham, ibid., pp. 94ff. 8 See Basham, ibid., p. 243 9 See Basham, ibid., p. 109 10 See Basham, ibid., pp. 118ff, 11 See also Basham, ibid., p. 123 12 See also Basham, ibid., pp. 17-18 13 Basham, ibid., pp. 283-4 14 E.g. Acāra I. 2. 3. 92-93 15 Sutrakyta 1. 1. 2. See also Dixit, Early Jainism, p. 6 16 E.g. Acāra I. 2 17 Acara I. 2. 5. 127 18 Basham, ibid., p. 109 19 E.g. Acara I. 4. 4. 261 20 The positive action of anārambha or akarana that leads one to achieve mokga
should be free of kaşāya and accompanied by the prescribed ethical conduct.