Studies In Umasvati And His Tattvartha Sutra

Author(s): G C Tripathi, Ashokkumar Singh
Publisher: Bhogilal Laherchand Institute of Indology

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The Yoga of Umāsvāti 31 region of the Self depending on the three types of classes, 13 viz., body, speech and mind. This elucidation is rather very abstruse since it goes very deep into the internal formative forces that manifest at the concerned levels of body, speech and mind, and which involve the removal of karmic obstacles to the exertive propensities, known in the Jainistic terminology as subsidencecum-destruction. This a highly accurate scientific description of the processes of the manifestation of activity at the concerned three levels.
Akalankadeva, in his Rājavārtika, alias Tattvārtha-vārtika, has discussed this definition the yoga of Umāsvāti in wordgreat details bringing out the intrinsic importance of each of the components in it. He points out to the many senses of the word karma in the definition, and asserts that it means activity in the present context, since other meanings do not fit in here.14 Then, he rules out a reference to merit and demerit in the case of activity here, since it is referred to in the succeeding aphorisms. 15 Further, he reveals that activity (karma) involves the consideration of the desire in so far as there are possibilities of the presence of many means, such as the doer or agent, etc., to determine the particular type of activity. 16
Thus, activity or karma consists of many aspects such as subsidence-cum-destruction of the obstacles of the exertion and knowledge, modification of the Self, modifications of matter, and dependence on the idea behind its inclination, such as definitive or generic standpoint.17 He justifies the threefold division of the types of activity on the basis of the modes, 18 since the modes and the corresponding Self are invariably concomitant. Then, he rules out the senses of meditation and collection of the term yoga in the present context, on the grounds that the topic of meditation is separately discussed later on by Umāsvāti in his work, and that the activity is of each individual type.20 By way of further justification of the meaning of the term yoga, Akalankadeva clarifies that since the intention of Umāsvāti here is to discuss