Book Title: Yogshatakam
Author(s): Haribhadrasuri, Punyavijay
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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Page 24
________________ III. Haribhadra's works on Yoga. The Jain philosophical literature before Haribhadra describes, as we have seen, the different stages of spiritual development under various designations - as fourteen Guņasthānas, as four Dhyānas or as three stages of self viz the Bahirātma (the exterior self), Antarātma (the interior self) and Paramātma (the transcendental self ). Haribhadra, for the first time, describes them as Yoga and employs altogether new style and a new terminology. What is more, he compares the Jain Yoga (and its terminology) with the Patañjala and the Buddhist Yoga, bringing out thereby very ably and clearly the unity that underlies all these divergent traditions of Yoga. Thus not only the Jain Yoga literature, the whole of Yoga literature bas been immensely enriched by his novel approach. This will be clear from a study of the following Yoga-works of Haribhadra. Haribbadra's chief works on Yoga are four – Yogabindu, Yoga-drșțisamuccaya, Yoga-śataka and Yoga-vimšati. Certain chapters in the "Şodaśaka' do pertain to Yoga but they do not give us any new information which is not given in the above four works. The first two works are written in Sansksta and the last two in Prāksta. Yogabindu has 527 verses, Yoga-dşști-sammuccaya has 227 verses, Yoga-Sataka has 100 gäthäs and Yoga-vimśati has 20 gāthas. Yoga-bindu That the souls from beginningless time have been wandering in the world under the sway of passions is an experienced fact. The question, therefore, is wbether it is possible for them to achieve freedom from these passions and if so, by what means ? The author replies that though the entanglement in the world is beginningless, it is not endless because it can be certainly ended by human endeavour. The achievement of the final goal is very difficult indeed; for, the means to it such as Adhyātma etc are extremely tough and abstruse and hence not easily available to each and every self. Only those who are in the Caramăvarta, that is, who have worked out the requisite purification of the self, are capable of practising Adhyatma etc. Such sadhakas are termed Sukla-päksika, Bhinna-granthi?, Càritri etc. (st. 72, 94). Conversely, men 1. The worldly existence of a soul falls into two periods, viz, dark (krsna ) and white (sukla). The soul in the period preceding the cutting of the knot (granthi-bheda ) is known as belonging to the dark period (kpşnapākṣika) and it is known as belonging to the white period (śukla-pākṣika ) when it has cut asunder the knot. The duration of the white period is much shorter in comparision with Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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