Sramana Tradation

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

Page 55

Sramana Tradition
vāda. 45 It explains mental phenomena by regarding them as compos. ed of various combinations of atomic' factors and processes. Of these factors cetanā or will is one and it is influenced by right or wrong motives called Kusala or Akusala hetus. The wrong motives are desire, aversion and insensibility or ignorance (moha), the right motives are their opposites. This functioning of right and wrong motives itself depends on the previous habits as well as the state of spiritual enlightenment of the subject. Right actior, thus, depends on the cultivation of a spiritually enlightened point of view on life, the assiduous cultivation of good habits and immediately, on acting under the impulse of higher emotions. The Buddhist theory of value considers inward peace of greater moment than sensuous enjoyments which being ephemeral quickly turn into their own opposites. Desire is a snare, which promises happiness but only brings unhappiness and bondage. Desire rests on the mistaken belief in the permanence of things and selves, a mistake under which men seek to recapture and ensure fleeting pleasures in the future. Imagination under this mistaken belief is the foremost instrument of human bondage. It is the wind which pushes the sails of desires. So the Buddha is said to have exclaimed :
kama jānāmi te mülam samkalpát kila jayase 1/'46 “Desire, I know your origin. You arise from imagination." The Buddhist morality, thus, is essentially a spiritual morality which seeks eternal peace and quiescence and countenances action only as occasions for the cultivation of purer feelings which would liberate man from his own egoism and extroversion.
The Jainas define Vrata as Virati or desisting from violence, falsehood, theft, sex and possession. 'Himsānstaste yābrahmaparigrahebhyo viratirvratam /'47 It is a rule deliberately adopted (abhisandhiksto niyamah). The adoption of such rules is distinct from Samvara bu a preparation for it. If the application of these rules is unlimited, they are called mahāyratas. Otherwise, they form the Anuvratas. Five bhāvanās have been prescribed for each of the five Vratas so that they
45. Cf. Mrs. Rhys Davids. The Birth of Indian Psychology. 46. Words attributed to the moment of enlightenment, Sankalpa here is not
Mānasain Karnan' but 'clipping together of experiences in imagination. 47. Tattvārtha, 7.1.