Sramana Tradation

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 25

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Sramapa Tradition
clearer by saying 'yaddhaitan na vijānāti vijānan vai tan na vijānāti na hi vi jñātur vijñāter viparilopo vidyate'vināśitvän na tu tad dviti yam asti tato'nyad vibhaktam yad vijānīyāt'. 'In not knowing, it is knowingly that he does not know since the knowledge of the knower does not disappear being imperishable. There is no second to him so that he could know something different.' It is the consciousness of duality that is lost, not all consciousness, because consciousness is eternal. For the Vijñānavadins also when the grahya-grāhaka-bhāva is transcended, the stream of Vijñāna yields place to Vijñaptimatrata.15 While the early Buddhists had emphasized the variable and particular of Vijñana, the Upanișadic tendency to absolutize it continued within Buddhism and ultimately made a powerful impact on the Vijñānavāda school.
In the description of the symposium at the court of Janaka, Jāratkārava Ārtabhāga asks Yājñavalkya - What happens to man after death ? " Kvāyam tada puruṣo bhavatīti." To answer this Ya jñavalkya took his interlocutor aside and the two are said to have discussed Karman." Karma haiva tadūcaturatha yat praśasamsatuh punyo ha vai punyena karmaņā bhavati pápaḥ påpena." "They spoke of Karman : What they praised was Karman. One becomes meritorious by meritorious Karman and sinful by sinful Karman.' As has been pointed out, this description suggests that although the doctrine of Karman was not wholly unknown to some Brahmanical thinkers, still it was not generally known to the Brahmanas from Kuru-Pancala who had gathered at the Court of Janaka. This is confirmed by the fact that at the end of the debate Yājñavalkya asks the gathering to tell him the root from which man is born again after death. Yadvykso vrkno rohati
avatarah punah mart yah syin mrtyună vrknah kasmān mülat
15. On Vijñāna, see my Studies in the Origins of Buddhism, pp. 494-95, fn. 244.
Cf. Sthiramati - 'tatra grāhakacittābhāvād grāhyarthānupalambhäc ca acitto'. nupalambho'sau dhruvo nityatvad akşayyataya sukho nityatvād eva' (On Trimsika, v. 29-30 :
acitto'nupalambho'sau jñānam lokottarañca tat/ asrayasya parāvșttir dvedhā dausthulyahānitaḥ // sa evānāsravo dhātur acintyaḥ kušalo dhruvaḥ/ sukho vimuktika yo'asu dharmakayo'yam mahāmune) //