Some Jaina Canonical Sutras

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

Page 75

PRAŚNA-VYAKARAŅĀNI (PAṆHĀVĀGARAŅĀIM)
61
act.
self-restraint, and chaste life, which brings about death, bondage, and coercion, and which is a cause of infatuation and delusion. It bears the name of sexual congress, sexindulgence, delight in vulgar life, sexual passions and overt Even the Vaimānika gods have sexual enjoyments with the goddesses and family maidens. They too are not free from this kind of infatuation. The demons, nagas, garuḍas and supannas too are no exceptions to the rule. Among men, the monarchs, kings, overlords, chaplains, high officers of the state, all run after this. The same passion is equally perceptible among the lower creatures. In this connection our text gives us the details about the physical forms, dresses, beautification, wiles and guiles, and various pleasing artifices, by which women entice men. Incidentally the modes of generation are discussed, according to which, living beings are to be classified as viviparous, oviparous and the like. This classification is the same as that met with in Pali and other Indian texts.
The fifth door to impiety is known as pariggaha or hankering after worldly possessions such as varieties of gems, gold, jewels, perfumes, scents, unguents, conveyances, utensils, household furniture, landed properties, wealth and opulence. It is rooted in greed and it is an expression of craving and thirst for worldly things. So it does by the name of craving (tanha), worldly attachment (asatti) and it is characterized by the great longing for earning, acquisition, accumulation, hoarding, insatiety and the like. Even the gods are not free from this hankering after worldly possessions. The emperors, Vasudevas, Baladevas, Mandalikas, chieftains, Tālavaras, commanders-in-chief, millionaires, bankers, rāṣṭrikas, purohitas, and the like are all guided by it. Worldly possessions comprise all secular sciences and arts, worldly enjoyments, agriculture, industry and commerce by which men are implicated in various conflicts and clashes of interests. In this connection our text speaks of sixty-four sciences and arts (catusatthi).
After dealing with the five doors to impiety the sutra takes up for consideration the five doors to samvara or selfrestraint, one by one. They are spoken of as virtues that stand for deliverance from all kinds of suffering. The first is called ahimsa (non-harming), the second, the truthful speech (saccavayanam), the third, taking only what is given (dattam-anunna), the fourth, continence (bambhaceram) and the fifth, non-hankering after worldly possessions (apariggahattam), which constitute the five great vows that are conducive to the good and welfare of the world.