Some Jaina Canonical Sutras

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Royal Asiatic Society

Page 48

34
SOME JAINA CANONICAL SOTRAS
infernal beings. The study of the lives of mythical beings such as the gods, the demons, and the like is on the whole anthropomorphic. The moral ideas of right and wrong, good and evil, virtue and vice, restraint and unrestraint, bondage and salvation, really apportain to the world of men.
The expositions and discussions of the salient doctrinal points of Jainism are full of logical niceties and disproportionate details. The sūtra points out that the organic world is characterized by six constant and opposed phenomena, namely, gain and loss, pleasure and pain, life and death (XV, I). The sūtra clearly presupposes the development of atomic theory (paramāņuvādu) in Indian philosophy. Some of the current theories are quoted and criticized (I, 10; II, 1; V, 7). According to the Jain theory as in our Sūtra, each atom is the smallest unitary whole of matter (pudgala). Each of them is characterized by its internal cohesion (sinchu). We cannot speak of a half atom (arddha) since an atom is an indivisible unit of matter. With the division it (eases to be an atom (parumāņoḥ ardhikurune parumāņutvābhāvaprasangāt). A molecule (uņu) is a combination of atoms more than one. An aggregate of matter (skandhu) results from an organic combination of five molecules. Disintegration of a corporeal aggregate results from the separation of the molecules and atoms. Here one may realize the force of the Jain argument for regarding even the material beings, the earth-lives, water-lives, etc., as distinct forms of life, each appearing as an individual with its internal cohesion so long as it exists as such. So through the process of organic development or evolution we pass through the different degrees and forms of internal cohesion.
The story of conversion of the Brāhmin wanderer named Khandaka (Skandhaka) by Mahāvīra in the Bhugavati Sūtru (II, 1) is very interesting. The name of the wanderer sounds like the wanderer Sandaka in the Pāli Majjhima Nikāya (Vol. I, p. 513). Like other Brāhmin wanderers Khandaka is said to have been well versed in the four Vedas, the six Vedāngas, and the Itihāsa-purāņu regarded as the fifth Veda. Here the list also includes mathematics (ganita) and the șaști-tantra of the Sankhya philosophy. The difficult austerities practised by the wanderer since his conversion to the Jain faith are in substance and detail like those described in the Antagadadasāo and Ovavāia suttas and in the Pāli Mahādukkhakhandhal and Mahāsīhanāda suttus. The dialogue contained in this uddesa throws some light on the
1 Majjhima Nikaya, I, pp. 83- 90.
2 Ibid., 1, pp. 68-83.
3B