Book Title: Tattvartha Sutra
Author(s): Sukhlal Sanghavi, K K Dixit
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 298
________________ CHAPTER TWO Among these the beings born by way of sudden manifestation and the beings destined to live for asānkhyāta years are possessed of a life-quantum not open to time-reduction and not characterized by upakrama; on the other hand, the beings possessing a body for the last time and the highly noble personages are possessed of a life-quantum not open to timereduction but either characterized or not characterized by upakrama. Leaving aside these, all the remaining human beings and animals are possessed of a life-quantum open to timereduction. 125 Question: If life-quantum is enjoyed away before its due period is over then there would arise the contingencies of a loss of the done, an attainment of the undone, futility, contingencies which the scriptural texts as undesirable. How are these contingencies to be evaded ? Answer: The above difficulty does not arise in the case of a sudden enjoying away of life-quantum. For the same karma which was to be enjoyed taking a long time is now enjoyed all at once; but no part of it is left without its consequence being experienced. Hence here there is involved neither a loss of the karma that was earned nor its futility. Similarly, what occurs here is death arising owing to a karma that was earned; hence here there is involved no attainment of the consequence of a karma that was not earned. All this is just as a spark of fire dropped on one side of a tightly bound mass of hay manages to burn down this entire mass blade by blade and taking a long time while a number of such sparks dropped on all sides of a loose and scattered mass of hay burn down the entire mass all at once. In order to elucidate this very idea the theoretical texts offer two more illustrations, one pertaining to an arithmetical operation, the other pertaining to the act of drying piece of cloth. Thus if we are to find out the least common multiple of a particular set of numbers there are a number of ways for doing so suggested by the science of arithmetic. Now one highly expert in arithmetic employs such a method in this connection as yields Jain Education International For Personal & Private Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596