Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 467

442
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SŪTRA [Ch. VII Dr. Basham suggests that the figures 60,000 and 600 as recorded in the BIS may be the total numbers of 'yoni pamukkha' of the Pāli texts and Karmansa or part of larma may correspond to the act, speech and thought of Buddhaghoșa. Thus three parts of karma (tinni kammān?) of this cannonical work may be identical with the addha-kamna of the Sāmaffiaphala Sutta.?
Conception of Soul
The conception of soul is intimately related to the doctrine of Karma and transmigration of being from one life to another and its final liberation. The study of the references to the many rebirths of an individual in different forms and bodies by Gośāla and to the Karmas occurring in the Bhs clearly reveals that Ajīvikism believed in the existence of soul, though a clear conception of its nature, etc., is not found in this work.
The evidence of the idea of soul according to the doctrine of Ajīvikism as revealed in the text is well supported by the Buddhist works where it is stated that all the six mendicant leaders alike taught in opposition to Lord Buddha that the conscious soul continues to exist after death. They had difference of views in regard to the exact mode of its existence; Gośāla is said to have expounded that it is endowed with form (rūpī), while Lord Mahāvīra explained that it was formless (arūpī).
"Rūpī attā hoti arogo param maraṇā saññi (Dīgh. N. 1.
p. 31)."
Conception of Immeasurable length of time involved in the process of transmigration of Soul
The BHS throws some light upon the measurement of time according to the doctrine of Ajīvikism by giving an account of immeasurable length of it, involved in the process of trans
1 History & Doctrine of Ajivikas-Dr. Basham p. 242. * Majjhima Nikāya-IV.398 (explained in Dīgha-N, 1. p. 303 ;
Di. 44-45).