Chapter 2 ( Jiva Ajiva Adhikar) (Gatha 39-68 )
Now the Jiva and
Ajiva together enter the stage dressed in a common attire such that the
ignorant observer believes them to be the same. This is how the ignorant people
without having right knowledge have been believing in life treating body as
soul etc. The right knowledge only identifies them differently. Once he does
do, the jiva and ajiva discard playing the charade of being the same and
separate from each other on the stage in their natural attire. The same occurs
in real life.
Acharya has
described in Gathas 39-43, the eight ways in which the Jiva has delusion about the form of Jiva.
Some believe that the adhyavasan corrupted with raga-dwesha ( manifestation of
deluded bhavas) itself is jiva. Some say that karmas fructifying from eternal
times itself is Jiva. Some others say that the experience of high or low
intensity ragas itself is jiva. Another says that the nokarma form body itself
is jiva since nothing else is seen. Some others say that the manifestation of
shubha or ashubha bhavas under influence of punya-pap karmas itself is jiva.
Another says that the experience of happiness or sorrow is jiva. Somebody else
says that the association of karmas with the soul is jiva since jiva is not
observed without karmas. Some others say that manifestation of karmas with soul
is jiva just as no cot is seen without eight pieces of wood. These eight type
of beliefs signify the beliefs of followers of Vedant, Mimansak, Samkhya, Yog,
Bauddha, Naiyayik, Vaisheshik, Charvak etc. philosophies. Even Jains suffer
from such delusions about their own religion due to lack of knowledge.
In 44th
Gatha Acharya emphatically says that all these bhavas are generated out of
pudgala dravya hence they cannot be called Jiva as told by Omniscient
Tirthankara. Various bhavas result under fruition of pudgala karmas which are
bonded with jiva since eternal times and accordingly jiva acquires different
bodies and sufferings or pleasures. Acharya overrules all misconceptions based
upon Agam (scripture), logic and own experience.
At this point
Acharya Amritchandra writes an important kalash 34, wherein he says that all these are various
noises which are generated. For once you get detached from all these and
experience your own soul. Practice this for six months and then see that you
are able to experience the soul or not. He has promised all the practitioners
to be able to attain Samyak Darshan within
just six months of practice.
In gathas
45-48 Acharya explains that all the bhavas are generated out of fruition of eight types
of karmas and they are said to belong to
jiva from aspect of Vyavahara naya. Just as the march of an army is said to be
the procession of King, in the same way the karmas are said to belong to Jiva
from aspect of Vyavahara. In reality
Jiva is different from karmas, body and different bhavas of raga-dwesha etc.
However they are assigned to belong to jiva in Vyvahara sense. This Vyavahara
is also true in certain sense. If karmas and their fruition were absolutely
different from jiva then there would be no need for jiva to attain Moksha either. But in certain aspect Jiva is
doer of them and suffers the results of those karmas. That is the Vyavahara
(practical aspect).
Now the disciple
enquires that if these adhyavasan etc. form bhavas are not jiva then what is
the real nature of jiva? In reply Acharya tells the famous 49th
gatha which is present in all other scriptures namely Pravachasar,
Niyamsar, Dhavla etc.
“ O Bhavya! Know
this Jiva to be tasteless, colourless, odourless, indescribable i.e. not
observable by senses, having the quality of consciousness, without causing
sound, not distinguishable by any feature, without having any shape. “
Pudgala dravya
only has the properties of touch, taste, colour, smell, with sound being the
property of its paryaya. Being corporeal it can be observed and identified by
its features. Jiva has none of such qualities, nor shape etc. The only way to
identify the jiva is by his consciousness.
The same thing is
liberally elaborated in gathas 50-55, where in 29 types of
manifestations of Jiva are described which do not really belong to Jiva but are
said to be so from the aspect of Vyavahara. Some of these are colour, odour,
taste, touch, body, raga, dwesha, moha, karma, nokarma etc. Quite a few of the
list of manifestations are the states of jiva bhavas under influence of karma
fruition. Some of these are subjects of Karananuyoga which has been avoided in
this book of essence. Suffice to say that all the manifestations of jiva in
terms of bhava as well as body form
really are not that of jiva since his nature is just that of consciousness. In
this Jiva-ajiva adhikar Acharya has elaborated this aspect in detail. In this
list in the 29th place Acharya tells that even the gunasthanas which
are from 1 to 14 types beginning with Mithyadrishti Gunasthana to Ayoga Kevali
gunasthana do not belong to Jiva. This statement summarizes all other earlier
assertions. All these gunasthanas represent levels of spiritual development of
jiva in the form of a ladder which he climbs on path to Moksha. However all
these states are accrued in conjunction with pudgala karma particles which are
progressively shedded as jiva attains purification of soul. The real jiva is
conscious self which is untouched by karma particles who is present in all
these fourteen types of states. The objective of Acharya is to bring to
attention the real nature of jiva to the disciple since the real jiva is always
obscured by different types of bhavas and karmas. In fact the disciple asks the
same question that if they do not belong to jiva then to whom do they belong?
In reply the gatha 56 is written which says that all these bhavas are
said to belong to jiva from aspect of Vyavahara but from aspect of Nishchaya,
they do not belong to Jiva. The Vyavahara naya imposes the ownership on to the jiva
since he is party to it while Nishchaya naya states from aspect of true nature
of Jiva wherein these are not his nature.
An example is
quoted in gatha 57 describing this association. Just as water with milk
appears to be milk but it is not truly milk, in the same way the karmas pudgala
in association with jiva appear to be jiva but they are not jiva. They can be
distinguished as different by the Upayoga (consciousness) quality of jiva.
Same is
elaborated in next three gathas 58-60 by means of an example. Just as
when a person is robbed in a path then the people say that this path is theft prone.
Really the path is just a path. It is only Vyavahara to assign theft proneness
to the path. In the same way Jiva is pure not having any of the pudgala
properties but on association with karmas he is assigned the ownership of those
states. In reality he is purely consciousness form only. In this way all the 29
states described earlier do not belong to jiva. Jiva is only of the form of
Upayoga from aspect of Nishchaya naya. It is important to know that Vyavahara
is also true in certain aspect and not absolutely false. After all Jiva has
been transmigrating in all the gatis since eternal times without attaining
salvation. The reason is that he has never realised his own true nature.
A question is
asked that why the colour etc. form bhavas are not integral with the jiva ?
This is answered
in 61st gatha. It is clarified that the integral relationship
of colour etc. occurs of pudgala matter with its qualities since they are permanent. The pudgala never forsakes these
qualities at any time. However in case of Jiva, these qualities are observed
only in worldly state to be integral with him but not in Siddha state.
Therefore it establishes that colour etc. qualities do not belong to Jiva in
integral manner and are only incidental. It is emphasized further in gatha
62 by telling that if you think that jiva is integral with those colour
etc. bhavas then there would be no difference between jiva and ajiva.
Further
clarification is provided in Gatha
63&64 for those who wonder if
jiva can be said to have these colour etc. qualities in worldly state in
integral manner. Acharya says that if one thinks so, then in worldly state the
jiva would be pudgala dravya only since they both have same qualities. In that
case the Moksha also would be attained by pudgala and not jiva which is absurd.
This establishes unequivocally that the colour etc. bhavas do not belong to
Jiva at any time.
Now Acharya
extends this argument in gathas 65-67 to all the forms of Jivas which
are observed in worldly states and tells that though jiva appears in these
forms, but really these states belong to pudgala matter since jiva does not
have the nature of being in these forms. These states are various Jiva Sthans
(states) known as one, two, three, four or five sensed, badar(large) or
sookshma (very small), paryapta (complete) or aparyapta (incomplete) which are
generated with the fruition of naam
karma. All these states are pudgala and they are said to belong to jiva just as
a mud pot is given the name of ‘pot of ghee’ since ghee is stored in it. In the same way the Jiva is called owner of
those body forms in worldly state since he has never realised his true nature.
Lastly Acharya
extends the same argument in gatha 68 to various gunasthanas and says
that these states are generated in association with Moha karma. But just as on
sowing millet, you get millet only, in the same way from fruition of moha karma you get moha karma only. The
argument is applied to the 29 types of states described earlier and thus it is
proved that all those states are not jiva but are generated in association with
pudgala karma and said to belong to jiva in vyavahara sense only. Even the
corruption in the bhavas of jiva like anger etc. are pudgala only since these
are due to fruition of nonconscious
pudgala karma matter.
Acharya Amrit
Chandra then concludes this chapter by
saying that Jiva and Ajiva had entered the stage in the same disguise but the
Samya drishti jiva realises them to be different by means of his
differentiating knowledge, knowing the Jiva to be of conscious nature only.
Once they have been separated then the disguise is meaningless and both exit
the stage reverting to their true forms.
Chapter 3 ( Karta-Karma Adhikar) (Gathas 69-144)
Acharya
Amritchandra begins by saying that Jiva and Ajiva now enter the stage disguised
in a single form of Karta-Karma. In his
opening introduction he says that the jiva has been deluded since eternal times
by thinking that myself the consciousness form jiva is the karta (doer) and
these anger etc. bhavas are my karma(deeds). Such ignorance of karta-karma is
destroyed only by the enlightenment with the gyan-jyoti (lamp of knowledge).
That lamp of knowledge is the Sruta Gyan which knows all the lok and alok and
all their dravyas.
Kundkundacharya
describes the problem in the beginning gathas 69-70. Just as the soul
manifests in the form of knowledge by his nature, he also manifests in anger
etc. without knowing the difference between knowledge and anger etc. with the
spirit of being karta(doer) with anger
etc. being his karma(deeds). This leads to bondage of karmas of the same form
as that of anger etc. and delusions. In future these karmas fructify leading to
fresh bondage of karmas of anger and delusion again. In this manner the cycle
continues uninterrupted since eternal times. The influx of karma matter at any
given time is defined as Asrava which is of two kinds. One is dravya asrava
which is the physical influx of matter and other is bhava asrava which denotes
the associated bhavas which are caused by those dravya asrava on fruition. Due
to his ignorance the jiva remains deluded into thinking the anger etc. as his
deeds and continues to bond with karmas in
future. Only differentiating knowledge can help him overcome this delusion.
This is revealed in gatha 71 wherein it is told that once the jiva
realises the difference between knowing a thing and manifesting in the form of
anger etc., then he forsakes the tendency of karta-karma and thus prevents
karma bondage. In this way really the knowledge only prevents bondage. This
really is the key to spirituality i.e. knowing the nature of anger etc. and
knowledge to be different. There is no anger in knowledge but knowledge knows
anger. Once this differentiating knowledge is attained then one can overcome
the karmas and prevent bondage.
A question is
asked that how knowledge alone can prevent bondage? This is answered in Gatha
72. Just as one knows impure water by knowing the characteristics of
impurities, in the same way by knowing the characteristics of asravas as
different than that of knowledge one distinguishes them. The asravas do not
know by themselves and cause perturbation only of the form of passions etc.
Thus knowing and differentiating those bhavas from the bhavas of knowledge, one
identifies them. Further knowing alone is discarding them since the sense of
being their doer is given up. In fact if they are not renounced then the
differentiating knowledge itself is not being attained. The important bottom
line is that the nature of soul is knowledge and nothing else. Therefore even
if previously acquired karmas fructify in anger etc. form the jiva remains
knower of those bhavas without indulgence.
That very
question is answered in Gatha 73 that how does jiva renunciate asravas?
Acharya tells that by contemplating upon the true nature of self as that of knowledge
and vision, remaining within the knowing self, the gyani overcomes the asravas
of anger etc. Just as a ship captured by vortex in the sea gets released by the
subsiding of vortex, in the same way the soul releases the asravas on attaining
tranquillity. In 74th gatha it is further explained that as
the tranquillity of soul keeps increasing, accordingly the asravas keep getting
separated and when the totally tranquil state is attained then all asravas are
separated. This occurs at the same moment.
Now the soul has
become Gyani because he does not indulge in manifestations of karma or nokarma
but knows them only. The same is stated in Gatha 75. Here it is
explained by an important example. The potter is not doer of the pot and it is
really the mud which has manifested in the form of pot since mud is all
pervasive within the pot at all times. The potter has only nimitta-naimittik
relationship with the making of pot. In the same way the soul is doer of his
own manifestations and bhavas of knowledge. He is only knower of the
manifestations of pudgala karmas but not the doer of transformations of
pudgala. Thus knowledge alone is the karma of knower soul. In this way he
renunciates the karta-karma bhava with respect to pudgala.
Now three
important questions are answered in gathas 76-78. The disciple asks
whether jiva has karta-karma bhava with respect to pudgala when (1) jiva is
knowing the pudgala karma (2) Jiva is knowing his own manifestations (3) Jiva
is knowing the fruition of pudgala karmas?
These are answered
in details in the commentary of Acharya Amritchandra. He says that normally
doer-deed relationships are of three kinds. Firstly when doer generates
something totally new. Secondly when he modifies existing thing into something
else. Thirdly when he neither generates nor modifies but just receives it. The
relationship between jiva and pudgala can manifest in these three forms only.
Now jiva cannot produce pudgala karma since jiva is noncorporeal and pudgala is
corporeal. Secondly he cannot modify the pudgala for the same reason. Thirdly
he cannot receive it since how can noncorporeal receive corporeal substance?
Therefore pudgala karma is not the deed of jiva nor jiva is doer of the same. (1)Manifesting
in the form of knowledge he knows pudgala karma but he cannot be doer of it. (2)Secondly
manifesting in knowledge form he knows his own manifestations but does not have
doer-deed relationship with pudgala. (3) Thirdly he knows the results of
fruition of pudgala karma in the form of happiness or unhappiness but still he
does not have doer-deed relationship with the pudgala karmas.
One more question
is asked in gatha 79. Here it is asked conversely whether pudgala dravya
has doer deed relationship with jiva dravya, in spite of not knowing
manifestations of jiva and its own and
not knowing the fruition of its manifestations. This too is replied in the same
way that pudgala dravya cannot generate jiva dravya, nor modify jiva , nor
receive jiva. Therefore there is no doer-deed relationship of pudgala dravya
either. In reality no substance has doer-deed relationship with any other
substance.
The mystery of
the relationship between jiva and pudgala is resolved in gathas 80-82
wherein it is told that jiva and pudgala share a nimitta-naimittik
(cause-effect) relationship but not the doer-deed. The manifestation of jiva
occurs under influence of pudgala karma acting as nimitta and similarly the
pudgala karmas manifest under influence of jiva acting as nimitta. But they do
not modify each other’s qualities. In reality soul himself is responsible for
his own bhavas wherein the
manifestations of pudgala karma act as nimitta. Conversely the pudgala karmas
are also accrued with the nimitta of the manifestation of jiva in different
anger etc. bhava forms.
Continued…..
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