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CHAPTER X
Jaina DOGMATICS AND MORAL AND SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE
Apart from the fact that one of the aims of Yasastilaka is to illustrate the doctrine of ahimsā, the work is designed to be a comprehensive manual of Jaina doctrines, and the object of Somadeva is to provide entertainment as well as religious instruction, and help forward the propagation of the Jaina faith. Books VI, VII and VIII of Yasastilaka, divided into fortysix kalpas or sections, are styled Upāsakādhyayana or Readings for laymen, and deal elaborately with samyaktva or right faith and its various aspects as well as the different vows, which are viewed as the mainstay (upalrṁhaka) of right faith. Somadeva's treatment of these topics is wider than that of many professed manuals on the subject, and what is more remarkable, illustrated in some cases by elaborate stories, which, although not original, are narrated in a manner peculiarly his own. In addition to the contents of Books VI-VIII, there are brief expositions of Jaina doctrines in Books IV and V, while the Anuprekşās are treated in an elaborate body of verse in Book II. It is true that the Jaina canon and its doctrines had been fixed long before the tenth century, but the age of Somadeva was an era of systematization and interpretation; and judged from this standpoint, his comprehensive review of the salient topics of Jaina dogmatics has a definite place in the literature of Jainism in Sanskrit.
I) Only a brief outline of Somadeva's exposition of Jaina dogma can be attempted in this chapter, and we may start with an interesting summary of the teachings of Jainism contained in a group of verses occurring in the dialogue between Yasodhara and his mother in Book IV. The summary is in the form of question and answer, and purports to report a conversation between Yaśodhara and a Digambara saint on the tenets of the Jaina religion. It is somewhat as follows: “What is Dharma? That which inculcates kindness to all creatures. Who is Apta? He who is free from worldly blemishes. What is the means to know him? A sāstra free from contradictory statements. What constitutes religious au Extermination of all desire for worldly objects. What is java ? That which possesses self-experienced attributes such as the intellectual faculty. How does the incorporeal jiva come into contact with the body? It is bound to the body by its own actions, just as the sky comes into contact with the dust raised by wind; and by its own actions it is subjected to birth in order that it may suffer their consequences, just as a learned Brahmin is made to tumble over an unclean substance by intoxicating drugs. How can Dharma be acquired? By observing the vows to the best of one's
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