The essence of Samaysar – 06

 

Chapter 4 Punya Pap Adhikar ( Gathas 145-163) -

Now same character Karma enters the stage disguised into two different forms of punya and pap. The ignorant one believes them to be different while samyak drishti recognises them as the same character.

Acharya Amritchandra introduces the characters  by means of an example. A lowly caste woman gave birth to two children. One was brought up in a Brahman family and the other was brought up in the low caste family. One considers self to be Brahman and hence renounces liquor totally while the other one daily consumes liquor considering self to be lowly caste. Even though both  were born of the same mother and both are low caste only, still one considers self to be high caste and behaves accordingly. The same is case with punya and pap. Both are karmas by birth but one treats punya as good and pap as bad. In real view both are bondages.

Acharya Kundakunda poses this question to the disciple in gatha 145. “ you think good karmas are beneficial. How can it be good when it makes one to go around in the worldly cycle?” It is unequivocally stated that from aspect of bondage they cannot be said to be different even though shubha karmas might have been accrued in Moksha marga. Here the objective is to remove ignorance regarding the good karma and bad karmas. This is clarified by the example in gatha 146. Just as golden shackle ties in the same way as iron shackle, hence from aspect of bondage both are same. Same way shubha karmas also result in bondage. Hence one should not have attachment towards them as stated in gatha 147. In gathas 148-149 another example is quoted in the commentary. Just as an elephant gets captured because of his attraction towards female elephant and suffers slavery by entrapment while the wise elephants avoids her and remain independent, in the same way the gyani people should not be attracted towards karmas knowing their nature. Therefore the conclusion is stated in Gatha 150 that one indulgent in ragas get bonded while detached jiva remains free of bondage. Hence it is the directive of Jinendra bhagwan that do not have attachment towards karmas.

One wonders that when all karmas have been negated then what is the refuge available even for Munis? This has been replied in gatha 151. In reality knowledge is the shelter available for the munis since that is the nature of soul and hence taking recourse to knowledge only leads to Moksha while all other karmas lead to bondage. It is clarified in gatha 152-153 that in reality the fasting and vows undertaken without knowledge are really child’s play. If they do not have belief in the knowledge natured soul then they cannot attain moksha in spite of all the fasting and vows.

In gathas 154-156, the disciple who has partiality towards punya karmas is addressed. In reality, jivas in the world do not know that the path to moksha is by means of total destruction of karmas which is attained by taking recourse to Samaysar form soul as earlier described. Many of them are satisfied by engaging in shubha karmas of the form of fasting, vows etc. discarding only the ashubha karmas. But the real moksha marga is samyakdarshan-gyan-charitra. Of these the belief in jiva etc. tatvas is samyak darshan. Knowing the Jivas etc. tatvas correctly is the Samyak gyan. Remaining in such state without indulging in ragas etc. is samyak charitra. Therefore the samyak darshan-gyan-charitra described here are nothing but manifestation of knowledge only which is the root cause of Moksha. It is reemphasized that by taking recourse to Vyavahara alone, one does not attain destruction of karmas.

The same   aspect is described in gathas 157-159 by means of example of pure white cloth. Just as whiteness is spoiled by dirt, in the same way the Samyaktva is obscured by dirt of the form of Mithyatva. The knowledge is obscured with ignorance form dirt and Charitra is soiled by Kashaya form dirt. In this way the karmas cause obscuration of the samyak darshan-gyan-charitra nature of soul totally preventing jiva to attain Moksha.

Further in gathas 160-163, it is stated that karma itself is of bondage form and has nature opposite to bhavas of moksha, being of mithyatva, ignorance, kshaya forms. Hence shubha or ashubha karmas should be rejected.

Acharya Amritchandra adds that when all the karmas are being negated then where is the question of punya or pap karmas? Once both are renounced then gyan automatically comes running. It is further clarified that till one attains Yathakhyat charitra ( 11^th gunasthana) samyak drishti manifests in two streams. First is shubha-ashubha karma form karma stream and other is knowledge stream. Both the streams can exist together without hindering each other. The karmas do their job and gyan does his own. To whatever extent shubha-ashubha karma stream is there, there is karma bondage accordingly and to whatever extent there is knowledge stream, the karmas get destroyed. A very fine point has been disclosed that not only vikalpas of sensual subjects or that of fasting etc. are cause for bondage but even contemplation of pure nature causes bondage(being of the form of vikalpa). Manifesting in nirvikalpa form knowledge alone is cause for Moksha.

It is further added that people are unaware of application of naya (view point). Those who are partial to karmas are indulgent in karmas and do not experience the knowledge while those who are partial to knowledge do not do purushartha (effort) and indulge in kshayayas (passions) negligently. Those who understand the implications of naya, they remain in knowledge form without indulgence in karmas and float over the entire world. When Vyavahara conduct is accompanied with Nishchaya jewel trio ( samyak darshan-gyan-charitra) then that conduct is described as the means.

The karmas have a singular nature but it had appeared in the form of punya and pap, two different characters on the stage. Once the knowledge identified them as the same  karma then they relinquished their disguises and departed  from the stage in their true form. In this way this particular act of punya-pap adhikar gets concluded.

Chapter 5 ( Asrava Adjikar) ( Gathas 164-180)-

Now asrava enters stage inebriated with pride since it has defeated the entire world into bondage. However Samyak gyan has the capability to overcome the same within Antarmuhurta period and destroy it totally. Acharya offers obeisance to such Samyak Gyan.

Firstly in Gathas 164-165, Acharya defines the Asravas. The manifestations of Jiva in the form of Mithyatva(delusion), Avirati(negligence), Kashaya (passions) and Yoga are Asrava bhavas which are of the form of corruption of Jiva bhavas. The same four types are of the form of pudgala dravya which were bonded with the jiva earlier and upon nimitta of whose fruition the jiva manifests in those forms of ragas etc. The influx of new karmas in the form of gyanavarana karmas etc. occurs with the nimitta of the fruition of past Mithyatva etc. form karmas subject to the nimitta of jiva manifesting in the form of ragas etc. These bhavas of the Jiva are not his pure knowledge form bhavas but are of corruption form. Hence they are called asravas.

In previous chapter the raga-dwesha etc. were called as Ajiva and attention was drawn towards pure conscious nature of jiva. Here in this chapter, these bhavas are described to be manifesting in the paryaya of soul hence soul is responsible for this offense. From aspect of shuddha Nishchaya these are manifestations of pudgala, but from the aspect of Ashuddha Nishchaya form Vyavahara, they belong to jiva representing his guilt. Hence they are said to be corruption of his soul. If Jiva does not indulge in raga-dwesha-moha then he would not be nimitta for the asrava of new karmas. Then only old karmas would fructify without any subsequent bondage. Thus the raga-dwesha manifestations of Agyani are nimitta for the asrava of new karmas. However for Gyani, it would not be applicable.

In this way here, the fruition of past mithyatva etc. form dravya karmas and raga-dwesha-moha  form Mithyatva bhavas of jiva have been established to be asravas really.

Although in bondage of new karmas, the fruition of past Mithhyatva etc. karmas is nimitta; even so without existence  of Moha-raga-dwesha bhavas in the soul, the new karmas do not get bonded. Therefore the truly harmful asrava bhavas for the soul are his own corruption in the form of raga-dwesha-moha.

That’s why it is said in gatha 166 that gyani person does not have these asrava bhavas. Once he is gyani then he cannot be having bhavas of the nature of ignorance. Therefore  he does not have raga-dwesha-moha  form asrava with the result that he does not bond with new karmas. He remains knower of the fructification of past karmas

The important point to be noted here is that for the jiva belonging to fourth gunasthana, although he does not have moha, he still has raga-dwesha of much smaller extent due to his weakness of conduct. He is aware of it and tries to overcome it. However due to his weakness he unwillingly indulges in raga-dwesha. There is bondage of karmas accordingly. But being of much lesser duration and intensity, this has been ignored in this narration. Here the emphasis is more on Mithyatva which is the real cause for worldly transmigration.

In 167^th gatha the effect of karmas are described by  means of a fine analogy of magnet. Just as magnet forces the iron needle to move, in the same way the fruition of ignorant bhavas of the form of raga-dwesha-moha influence the jiva to act in the form of bhavas of same kind. This results in bondage of new karmas. On the other hand if the needle is not that of iron then it is not attracted hence it does not move. In the same way if the jiva is gyani then he does not have bhavas of ignorance kind raga-dwesha-moha and therefore in spite of fruition of karmas he does not indulge in bhavas of those kind.  Hence he does not accrue new karmas.

With another analogy of ripe fruit, Acharya describes the status of fructifying karmas in gatha 168. Just as a ripe fruit falls from the tree and does not return back to the tree, in the same way the karmas on fructification once, do not fructify as karmas again. Hence if the jiva is gyani then on fructification  the karmas shed away without resulting in fresh bondage. In fact it goes on to say that if the roots of a tree are cut then it is a matter of time till even the leaves become dry and shed away. In the same way, once the jiva is samyakdrishti then the roots cause of Mithytva has been overcome. Then it is a just a matter of time till all the remaining karmas would be shed and jiva would attain Moksha.

Therefore it is emphatically stated in gatha 169 that gyani does not have dravya asrava. He has only previously bonded karmas in existence which are as good as  pebble of mud. Basically jiva, being gyani  does not have bhava asrava and therefore no fresh dravya asrava accrue. Only past karmas are in existence which are compared to pebbles of mud since they do not do anything. Surely they would shed away after fruition. But gyani would not be adversely affected.

In Gathas 170-172, it is stated that four types of dravya asrava  as described above cause bondage in accordance with the manifestation of knowledge, vision etc.  qualities of jiva. However the gyani also accrues bondage in accordance with the weakness of his knowledge, vision, conduct qualities. Therefore here the gyani has not been totally exempted from bondage. The reason is that in fourth gunasthana he has limited knowledge, vision, conduct qualities therefore his bhavas are said to be Kshayopashamic ( bhavas caused by destruction cum subsidence of karmas) which is considered to be inferior manifestation of knowledge etc. qualities as compared to the gyani in Yathakhyat charitra state(11^th gunasthana) where no Kashaya bhavas are existent. Hence he does have  presence  of ragas in his manifestation although it may be termed as without his knowledge, while the ragas within his knowledge are avoided by gyani. For this small extent of ragas he does undergo bondage. Hence he is advised to practice experiencing his own soul continuously so that his raga bhavas keep diminishing  till he attain keval gyan. When keval gyan is attained then the jiva is totally free of asrava.

The disciple is confused that earlier the gyani was told to be free of asrava and then he was said to have asrava also. To resolve this the gathas 173-176 explain the reality in detail. For the samyak drishti, the previously bonded karmas are in existence. On their fruition in accordance with the bhavas of the gyani jiva they result in bondage of 7-8 types of karmas. This is explained with the analogy of a young girl married to a man. Being young she is not enjoyable by the man. However on reaching age, the woman attracts man and bonds with him depending upon the man’s disposition. In the same way on reaching state of fruition the karmas cause bondage of new karmas depending upon the inclination of jiva towards ragas. The samyak drishti jiva has weakness of charitra moha in fourth gunasthana hence according to his inclination towards such ragas the karmas are accrued. However these are considered to be insignificant as compared to the karmas bonded by a Mithyadrishti. Hence earlier it was said that Gyani does not have asrava of karmas. In reality he does have a small amount to bondage due to his weakness which he keeps trying to overcome.

The same is again reiterated in gathas 177-178 that in the absence of raga dwesha moha, the Samyakdrishti jiva does not accrue bondage. The main culprit is Mithyatva and if Mithyatva is overcome the jiva becomes Samyak drishti and hence his raga-dwesha are of much inferior kind. Therefore the bondage accrued is  considered to be of negligible significance. Therefore it can be safely stated that the Gyani does not have bondage.

Acharya Amritchandra gives the full credit of this non bondage to shuddha naya. Those who practice concentration within their soul taking recourse to shuddha naya, they continue experiencing samaysar without raga dwesha. However in vikalpa state due to lack of shuddhopayoga  they accrue small bondage. The same is stated in Gathas 179-180 that when jiva deviates from shuddha naya, then the raga etc form bhavas overcome the jiva and in that state on fruition of previously bonded karmas, a small amount does accrue as bondage of various karmas just as  food digested is converted in to blood, bones, flesh etc. Therefore the lesson is that one should not give up Shuddha naya.

In this manner Jiva can overcome asrava. The asrava which had entered the stage has been overcome by means of shuddha naya. Therefore the defeated asrava exits the stage.

Continued…….