The Essence of Samaysar - 02

 

                    Chapter 1 ( Poorva Rang Adhikar) (Gatha 1-38)

Those who have read Samaysar along with the commentary of Amritchandracharya would always recall the impact when they read the first kalash of samaysar famous by the words  “नमः समयसाराय स्वानुभूति चकासते “. What is immediately noticeable is that Acharya has not wasted any time with conventional magalacharan (salutations) but straight away offered obeisance to pure soul. Afterall the pure soul is of no different form than that of  siddhas so they are one and the same. But by offering his salutations to pure soul Acharya strikes at the heart of each reader since the topic is directly his own soul not any other. Acharya says that pure soul alone is essence of Samaya (soul)  which is devoid of dravya, bhava and nokarmas. Karmas are accrued to jiva in three forms. First is physical pudgala matter which is conjoined with the spatial elements of Jiva under the influence of raga (passions) etc. form manifestations of jiva. These are known as dravya karmas. However these karmas do not fructify immediately into passionate thoughts but give their result after a certain period and in a particular intensity depending upon the bondage. These are known as bhava karmas. These passions of anger etc. directly effect the qualities of jiva hence are called ghatiya karmas. Besides these there are some secondary karmas  which are known as nokarmas ( not karmas ) which are  incidental and decide the environment in which jiva would function. For example the wife, children, house, body  etc. form nokarmas of the jiva which impact his happiness, unhappiness. When the soul is emancipated and all these three types of karmas have been destroyed then only the conscious form non corporeal pure soul emerges that knows himself and all other dravyas simultaneously at the same time in an instant. By describing this Acharya has offered salutations and at the same time defined our goal. Further by describing the characteristics of the soul he has refuted the erroneous philosophies of contemporaries.

The mangalacharan in first Gatha  by Acharya KundKunda is preceded by the words of Acharya Amritchandra that  the sutras are now incarnated. The word incarnation indicates that they were in existence at all times but now they have taken birth in written form. This represents the high degree of respect one bestows to the divine sermons of Arihant Bhagwan. The divine sermons are always believed to be beginningless.  Here Acharya  offers salutations to Siddhas by positioning them within own and others souls. There is significant importance of such sthapana ( positioning) within our souls. By doing so we are ridding our souls of passions and purifying it for receiving his words. Which words? Conventionally these words are of the form of divine sermon of Bhagwan Mahaveer. But he does not preach in conventional sense. His divine sermon is understood  by the Ganadharas who then convert it into form of sruta gyan ( written/spoken scripture) which we can understand. The Ganadharas are called Sruta Kevali since they have knowledge of entire scripture. Here Acharya says that I am narrating  to you the Samaysar which has been described by the sruta kevalis. It has to be noticed that Acharya does not say that I am telling you what is  the soul. He takes no credit. If our readers have some experience of philosophical writings and oration at present times then they can notice that all other contemporary philosophers begin with taking credit for themselves !  Here our Acharya is telling 2000 years back and not taking any credit for it. He is attributing it to Bhagwan Mahaveer. This establishes the authenticity of the scripture to follow.

The term Samaya has been used for denoting the soul hence one wonders that what is that samaya?

This is answered by the second gatha. It says that the Jiva engaged in Darshan- Gyan- Charitra is Swa-samaya in reality while the one engaged in karmas knowing them to be his own with an attitude of oneness is para-samaya. In this one line itself whole message of Samaysar has been conveyed. Hence it is important to understand this line before we can proceed any further since it establishes the foundation for understanding Samaysar.

Once the Jiva develops differentiating knowledge with the nimitta (causal agent) of Guru and realises his own soul to be different from the body and other jivas then he is said to have samyak darshan ( right belief) which can be attributed to the samyak gyan ( right knowledge) generated by the realisation of self. Then he tends to remain within his own soul as far as possible since he experiences it to be giving indescribable pleasure beyond senses. In reality such effort is described as Samyak Charitra ( right conduct). Thus the Jiva engaged in remaining stationary within his own soul being immersed in the self, knowing the self and experiencing the self is said to be swa-samaya. On the other hand the mundane jiva busy in anger-pride-deceit-greed types of passions does not experience the soul for even one moment therefore he is described as para-samaya. Remaining in this state he accrues karmas, gets bonded with them and as a result of which he wanders into four types of gatis (births) for eternal period. While remaining within his own nature of soul gives him pleasure, the engagement with other dravyas causes a duality which results in his losing his singularity.

The third gatha of Acharya highlights this issue only. Every dravya remaining within their own selves are natural and beautiful but the moment Jiva engages himself with other dravyas and establishes his oneness with them, it results in bondage of pudgala karmas which is of the nature of duality. It is this duality which is detrimental. The free soul is singular, immersed within self experiencing pleasure at all times.

It is this singularity which is rare to attain since people do not even know about it. In fourth Gatha Acharya narrate the problem. How to achieve something which people do not even know about? People are familiar with birth-death-diseases, seen sufferings of animals, mankind and they treat it as their destiny and reconcile to live with it. They have heard of good or bad karmas which give rise to birth in heaven or hell. Their knowledge ends here. But there is something beyond this mundane  existence. They have not seen, nor heard or experienced.

Therefore in fifth Gatha Acharya makes a promise, takes a vow. He offers to demonstrate the glory of soul by showing his own treasure. You are invited to examine it, test it and then take a decision. How does one  examine the glory of soul? There are four techniques – Agam ( scripture) which describes the characteristics of soul as described by authentic Gurus, second is logic with which one can interpret the message of scriptures and analyse it, third is upadesh or sermons which knowledgeable gurus are preaching and last but not the least is your own purusharth (effort). Employ all of them  judiciously to examine my statements, then experience it yourselves and then decide. Do not look for flaws or mistakes. Take decision based upon your own experience.

Thus in five gathas, Acharya has narrated the problem and his own resolve. It is for us to accept this challenge and make efforts to understand and examine his words. If we fail, we do not lose anything since we will remain as we are. But if we are successful then glory of Moksha awaits us getting rid of vagaries of transmigrations of five kinds.

Therefore in sixth gatha, Acharya makes a direct statement of the nature of soul. What is the form of that soul which he wants us to realise?  He says soul is of the form of knowing nature which is neither Pramatta nor Apramatta. He is that only and none else.

Frankly when I read this the very first time, my study of Samaysar got derailed. I did not know what is Pramatta or Apramatta. Without understanding it properly, further studies are confusing. Hence I would like to take some time to clarify this matter for the beginners.

As told earlier the emancipation of jiva starts with the realising the soul to be different entity from all pudgala (matter) material like body, house money etc.  and other jivas like wife, son etc. This process is initiated with  the words of a Guru or one’s own self (due to past remembrance)  which culminates in right knowledge and right belief wherein one has experienced the self. This development of soul has been characterised in Jain scriptures by means of fourteen gunasthanas which denote fourteen steps of a ladder for climbing towards Moksha or Siddha state, the ultimate objective. The one with realisation of soul is said to be in fourth gunasthana. The first step is where all jivas are stationed permanently named as Mithyatva state since from beginningless time the jivas have been deluded to believe body as soul and  worship of some deity as the means to attain pleasures or avoid pains. Once jiva has realised his own soul then he makes efforts more and more towards purifying that experience. This process is known as samyak charitra (right conduct) which begins with jiva discarding desires and attachments since these are the hindrances for soulful experience. A muni state wherein all the possessions including clothes are discarded and five great vows are undertaken is known as sixth gunasthana, also known as Pramatta. Till now the jiva is said to have Pramada (carelessness and passions). In Muni state when jiva contemplated of own soul in meditation form he is said to be Apramtta wherein the carelessness is not there and passions are diminishing further. This is known as seventh Gunasthana and is the beginning state of meditation. Further climbing of ladder is in meditation state only where in the purification of soul goes on in a continuing process. Till twelfth Gunasthana is known as Chhadmastha state where in jiva does not have total knowledge and his nature is obscured  by eight types of karmas. In thirteenth gunasthana the four ghatiya karmas are totally destroyed and Keval gyan is revealed. The knowledge of jiva is no more obscured and he knows all the knowables of the world at the same time in single instant. This is omniscience. Still four aghatiya karmas which are not harmful to soul are remaining which are destroyed in fourteenth gunasthana. Once that occurs then the body of the jiva evaporates since there is no karmic attachment. The jiva reaches the end of the universe towards the  Siddhalok where in he stays permanently for ever enjoying his blissful state. There is nothing unknown and just bliss of own experience exists. The states from seventh gunasthana to fourteenth are called Apramatta while the states from first to sixth gunasthana are called as Pramatta.

So what does Acharya imply when he says that soul is neither Pramatta or Apramatta?

Basically these two states denote the spiritual level of the jiva in worldly state. These are the possible manifestations a jiva can have. But by telling that he is neither of them, Acharya implies that Jiva is beyond differentiation into these states. He is Jiva dravya which is always pure, having the nature of knowing at all times. In any of the states of jiva the knowing nature is never surrendered. It is that nature which should be objective of contemplation at all times since it is always pure. Hence one should not be concerned of the impure states of either pramatta or apramatta since that gives rise to vikalpas(thoughts). This gatha defines the goal of jiva . This statement is made from the aspect of shuddha naya (view point). The worldly states are observed from aspect of ashuddha ( impure) naya since their subject is the world. The objective here is to relinquish the worldly view point which we have been indulging in  so far and embrace the pure view point which leads to total detachment and Moksha.

Now someone might remind that just at the beginning in second gatha only we had said that jiva stationary in darshan-gyan-charitra is swa-samaya which is the dharma of soul. Now we are telling that differentiation in any form causes impurity. This has been answered in seventh gatha and with this gatha the main tool of realisation of soul has been unleashed. In seventh gatha Acharya tells that these bhjavas of darshan-gyan-charitra are told to belong to  jiva from the aspect of Vyavahara (practical) while from the aspect of Nishchaya (reality), jiva is neither darshan, nor gyan, nor charitra; he is pure knowing natured alone.

A very important tool of Jainism is the language of Naya i.e. the describing a thing from a certain view point. Actually every sentence we use in day to day life has an implicit aspect but we are unaware of it. This is a powerful tool which is lacking in other religions and therefore their philosophies take the form of one sided view which become contradictory. Here Acharya has introduced the language of nishchaya (reality) and Vyavahara (practical). Here a thing is described by its various manifestations in practice but in reality it is just a substance. For example a Jiva manifests in the form of human, animal, deva etc. at different times and these manifestations are true. But in reality he is just the jiva substance undergoing all those transformations. So from certain aspect he is just jiva, while from another aspect he is human or deva. These are known as aspects of nishchaya and vyavahara. Without Vyavahara one cannot describe various forms of jiva hence it serves certain purpose. On the other hand reality describes the true picture.

Now here in seventh gatha acharya says that jiva has different qualities of darshan, gyan and charitra which are described from practical aspect. These are differentiation of jiva in terms of his qualities. However together they are nothing but the knowing natured jiva only which is the reality. What is the objective of telling these? Remember in second gatha itself acharya told that jiva stationary in darshan, gyan charitra is swa-samaya. Even here acharya had to take recourse to vyavahara in describing by his qualities. But this causes vikalpas in the mind of jiva when he contemplates of differentiation. The objective of meditation is to attain nirvikalpa (thoughts free) state. Then only one can truly experience the soul. For that to happen the vikalpas have to be discarded but they are essential for leading to nirvikalpa state. Hence acharya uses darshan, gyan, charitra for identifying nature of  jiva then ask him to discard those and contemplate of the one knowing natured self.

Naturally the readers would have the question now that why bother about vyavahara and just tell us the nishchaya and be done with it. Acharya anticipated the same question in eighth gatha and answered it. He says that without Vyavahara one cannot know the reality.

Just as I am writing it in English for someone to understand what is the soul. One who does not know English cannot know what is the soul. Then how do you explain him what is the soul. There is no way. This language is the Vyavahara or practical aspect which serves the purpose of explaining but once you know the soul then English has no role. One has to just experience the soul and forget about language. Knowing the soul was the real objective which has to be conveyed by the tools of Vyavahara and once the knowledge is attained then the tools can be discarded.

It is important to realise at this point itself that Vyavahara is merely a tool and should be so treated. For example if one develops affection towards English and forgoes the soul then his goal has been lost. He has developed attachment with tool itself which does not serve any purpose. Hence the goal has to be kept in mind in forefront when Vyavahara is being applied.

Question may be raised that how Vyavahara can be used to describe reality? This has been answered in ninth and tenth  gathas with an example. It is Vyavahara to call the one knowing all the shrutagyan of the world as Shrutakevali. But the knowledge of entire shruta is the knowledge of the soul and the one who knows the soul is called shrutakevali from reality aspect. Therefore the one who was described as shrutakevali from vyavahara aspect only is shrutakevali from real aspect. Thus Vyavahara has described reality only and no contradiction is there. In this sense the vyavahara has served the purpose.

Again someone may ask that if you say Vyavahara describes reality then we can adhere to it only, why say that it should be discarded ?

This has been answered in eleventh gatha unequivocally. It is clearly said that Vyavahara naya is beneficial under certain circumstances at some time, however Nishchaya naya  describes the true reality. Without knowing Nishchaya, the vyavahara is meaningless. Only when the Nishchaya naya is known then only one has knowledge of soul and the jiva may be called Samyak drishti.

To explain it clearly we can extend the previous example to English language. One may become very proficient in English being  the medium to learn samaysar and thus the soul. But so long as he has not applied the knowledge to realise the soul, the knowledge of language is worthless. Here the objective was to know the soul but one got sidetracked  into learning language only and the objective was lost. Therefore it is important to realise that Vyavahara is only tool not the goal.

The  Vyavahara also serves the purpose sometime. This is told again in twelfth gatha.

While it has been told that real objective is to experience the soul and remain within the soul at all times for attainment of Moksha, the fact is that one is not able to do so in practice. Then what does one do? This is where the worldly practices come into play. While one’s objective is clear, he should spend time in listening, describing, discussing the words of jina, worship, fast etc. to weaken the passions and desires. These practices are deemed as shubhopayoaga while the objective is to  remain in shuddhopayoga. Here it is being told that if one can not remain in shuddha upayoga then he should at least stay in  shubha upayoga but he should not indulge in passions, desires etc. of the form of ashubha upayoga because such indulgence would lead to taking births in lower order jivas from where one may not return for a long time. Hence Vyavahara practices are prescribed as intermediary. In that sense the Vyavahara also is meaningful and serves a purpose.

Continued….