Book Title: Some Jaina Canonical Sutras
Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Royal Asiatic Society

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Page 211
________________ 197 kinds of obstruction to right faith: sleep, activity, very deep sleep, a high degree of activity, a state of deep-rooted greed. Vedaniya is two-fold: pleasure and pain. Mohaniya is twofold as referring to faith and conduct. The three kinds of mohaniya referring to faith are right faith, wrong faith and faith, partly right and partly wrong. The two kinds of mohaniya referring to conduct are: (1) what is experienced in the form of the four cardinal passions, and (2) what is experienced in the form of feelings different from them.1 Ayuşka is four-fold: denizens of hell, brute creation, men and gods. Nama is two-fold: good and bad. Gotra is two-fold: high and low. Antaraya is five-fold as preventing gifts, profits, momentary enjoyment, continuous enjoyment, and power. The number of atoms of every karma is infinite. The karma in the six directions of space binds all souls. PRINCIPLES OF JAINISM The lesyas are different conditions produced in the soul by the influence of different karma. They are, therefore, not dependent on the nature of the soul, but on the karma which influences the soul. They are named in the following order: black, blue, grey, red, yellow, and white. The black lesya has the colour of a rain-cloud, a buffalo's horn. The kind to what they call vilokana; the fourth kind to what they call cetopariyāñana; and the fifth kind to what they call sabbaññutā or omniscience consisting in three faculties: of reviewing and recalling to mind all past existences with details, of perceiving the destiny of other beings according to their deeds, and of being conscious of the final destruction of sins. Cf. Tattvärtha-Sutra, i, 9. Kevala means that which is limited by the object, that which is suflicient to survey the field of observation. Cf. Kalpasūtra, 15. Manaḥparyyañāņa is defined in the Acaranga Sutra (II, 15. 23) as a knowledge of the thoughts of all sentient beings. Kevalajñāņa is defined in the same text as omniscience enabling a person to comprehend all objects and to know all conditions of the world of gods, men and demons (II, 15, 25). 1 Uttaradhyayana S., XXXIII, 5-10. 2 The Buddhist idea of contamination of mind by the influx of impurities from outside, illustrated by the simile of a piece of cloth dyed blue, red, yellow or the like, would seem to have some bearing on the Jain doctrine of the six lesyas, which is merely hinted at in the Sutrakṛtānga (I, 4, 21), where a Jain saint is described as a person whose soul is in a pure condition (lesya) and fully explained in the Uttaradhyayana (XXXIV). The Jaina religious efforts are directed towards the acquisition of pure lesyā (Sūtrakṛtānga, 1, 10, 15); cf. Utta radhyayana, XXXIV. Krsna lesya is the worst of the three bad emotions colouring soul. Nila lesya--this emotion is less evil than the last. Kapota (grey) lesya may lead men to do evil. A man under its command becomes crooked in thought and deed. Teja lesya removes all evil thoughts from the jiva under its sway. Pudma lesya is a good emotion; through its power a man controls anger, pride, deceit and avarice. Sukla lesya-when a man is under its influence, love and hatred disappear. There are three bad emotions and three good emotions-black, blue and grey are the three bad emotions; yellow, pink and white are the three good emotions. Cf. Maşkarin's division of souls into six colour types (abhijātis) reduced in the Mahabharata (XII, 279, 33-68) into the Samkhya division of souls into three colour types, namely, the white, the red and the dark. Lośya means soul type according to Leumann (Aupapātika Sutra, Glossary). .

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