Studies In Umasvati And His Tattvartha Sutra

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

Page 51

Umāsvāti on the Quality of Sukha 41 Umāsvāti's use of the term avyābādha to describe sukha in the state of the siddha leaves many questions unanswered. Avyābādha is a negative term signifying merely the end of afflictions that the soul was subject to during the state of karmic bondage in samsāra. The title of another work of his called Praśmarati-prakarana (A Treatise on Delight in Spiritual Calm) might lead one to anticipate a more positive meaning for the word sukha. Even so, in his concluding verses on that treatise, he repeats the adjectives found in the Bhāsya, namely anupama and avyābādha, and adds that such a soul is characterized by kevalasamyaktva and infinite jñana and darśana, three qualities that are kṣāyika bhāvas, which were attained while the soul was still in the state of embodiment (i.e. a kevalin). The quality of sukha thus seems to manifest only when corporeal bondage has ended, as he says, 'Physical and mental suffering happens because of the activities of the body. In the absence of the body, etc., there is also the absence of such suffering and thus is established the bliss of the siddha'.5 Here again, sukha is explained in negative terms, as freedom from suffering, a paraphrase for the word avyābādha.
It should be noted that the samksepa-ślokas attributed to Umāsvāti seem to have been accepted by the Digambara author Akalanka in his Tattvārtha-Vārttika (known as Rājavārttika) as he quotes some of the above verses pertaining to sukha with the words ‘uktam ca’ without referring to his source. This is of great significance since it demonstrates that there was no dispute among Jains on the nature of the siddha and the quality of sukha in that stage. Umāsvāti's admonition that the presence of such an indescribable quality in the siddha should be accepted on the authority of the scriptures (āgama-pramāņa), cannot be lightly set aside. It might, therefore, be considered somewhat pre- sumptuous for anyone to probe into the nature of this quality called sukha and to determine if it is present in any form in the embodied kevalin (i.e. an Arhat) and if it were to exist in the