Preface
Pravachansar
is one of the most important scriptures written by Acharya KundKunda with the
most famous being Samaysar. Brief introduction of Acharya Kund Kunda is already
given in previous blog ‘Essence of Samaysar’.
Pravachansar
forms part of the second series of
Shruta Scriptures which have survived the vagaries of time since the Nirvana of
Bhagwan Mahaveer. The first series of scriptures are attributed to Acharya
Dharsen and Acharya Gunabhadra who contributed to Shatkhandagam and Kashay
Pahuda which form the first series of scriptures. These are primarily Siddhant
Granths wherein soul is described from the aspect of his paryayas i.e. his
manifestations in the endless process of transmigration. The second series of
scriptures is attributed to Acharya KundKunda who wrote Samaysar, Pravachansar,
Niyamsar, Ashta Pahud, Panchastikaya Sangrah etc. Here the emphasis was on the
pure nature of soul and how he can overcome the cycles of transmigrations.
Like
Samaysar, Pravachansar also has been adorned with its commentary by Acharya
Amritchandra. Another commentary of Acharya Jaysen written 200 years later is
also equally famous and well followed.
Here in
Pravachansar, the subject matter is divided into three main chapters in the
commentary ‘Tatva Pradeepika’ by Acharya Amritchandra. . The first one is
called ‘Gyan Tatva Pragyapan’. In this chapter the knowledge and blissful
nature of soul is described which the ignorant Jiva has never earlier realised.
The second chapter is named ‘Gyeya Tatva Pragyapan’ which describes the various
subjects of knowledge. The emphasis is laid on realising the differentiating
knowledge between the soul and others which the jiva has never done. The third
and the last chapter is ‘Charananuyoga soochak Choolika’ which describes in
detail the conduct of the Muni. The same three chapters have been named as
‘Samyak Gyan Adhikar’, ‘Samyak Darshan Adhikar’ and ‘Samyak Charitra Adhikar’
by Acharya Jaysen in his commentary. The details of the organisation of
Pravachansar are shown in the chart enclosed.
The purpose of writing this essence of Pravachansar is to
provide a first exposure to those who are interested in reading Jain Scriptures
and are not conversant with Hindi or other regional languages. Very little is
available in English. Here I have attempted to write a concise version
describing each of the 275 Gathas and a brief commentary on the same in my own
words. I have not attempted the detailed word to word translation. The purpose
is to provide a glimpse of the entire subject first. However it cannot be
denied that the real flavour of these scriptures
are experienced when they are read in original language of Prakrit and
Sanskrit. While Hindi forms a bridge for the current generation Indians to
understand these scriptures and provide a decent alternative, the same cannot
be promised in English where the vocabulary gets considerably limited related
to Jain words. It is but necessary for the English reader to get accustomed to
some of the Hindi words which are used here since no suitable equivalents exist in English. Hopefully the spirit of the
scripture is conveyed properly. I apologise in advance for any mistakes that
are inadvertently committed in this attempt.
Gyan Tatva Pragyanpana-
Maha Adhikar
Firstly the commentator
of Pravachansar, Acharya Amritchandra introduces Acharya Kund Kunda in his
preface towards the commentary. He says that Acharya Kund kunda was soon to
attain Moksha, was extremely rational, follower of Anekantvad (pluralism),
possession less and equanimous. Knowing that the most venerable Moksha Lakshmi is beneficial for everyone, he
proceeds to write Pravachansar invoking Mahaveer Swamy and other Panch
Parameshthis. He uses the word incarnation to welcome the act of appearance of
Gatha sutras in oral/written form.
The first
five gathas constitute the Mangalacharan. Acharya Kund Kunda firstly offers
obeisance to Bhagwan Vardhaman Swamy as the last tirthankara who is worshipped
by all greats like Surendra (ruler of devas), Asurendra(ruler of Asuras) and
Narendra(ruler of human beings), who is the only Guru of entire three lokas,
who has destroyed Ghati karma form impurities, thereby has attained infinite
power of the form of Parameshwara to benefit the mankind, who is capable of guiding all the
yogis onto the moksha marga. Subsequently he offers obeisance to all other
Tirthankaras, siddhas and all other Parameshthis like Acharya, Upadhyaya and
Sadhus who are adorned with five types of conducts of gyan, darshan, charitra,
tapa and veerya due to which they have attained great shuddhopayoga state.
Now in the sixth
gatha the benefit of right conduct is
described. With the right conduct having predominance of right belief and
knowledge, this Jiva enjoys glory of Devendras, Asurendras and Narnendras and
ultimately attains Nirvana. It implies that though in the beginning the right conduct is accompanied with some raga
which results in taking births in forms of Narendras, Asurendras amd
Devendras but ultimately with totally
Veetrag charitra Jiva attains Moksha. It
is to be noted that bondage of punya karmas is not glorified since that is also
undesirable.
Obviously it
raises the question that what kind of right conduct is that which leads to such
glories? In answer the seventh gatha is written. Actually charitra only
is dharma which is of the form of equanimity. The manifestation of soul in a
form devoid of moha, raga, dwesha only
is equanimity.
Truly
manifestation in own real nature itself is charitra. It is also denoted by the
term Swa-samaya which implies remaining within the soul. Such equanimous nature
is devoid of all the impurities arising out of fruition of darshan and
charitra-mohaniya karmas.
In eighth
gatha it is stated that the form in which a dravya manifests at any given
moment, that form is the state of the dravya at that moment. Thus soul
manifested in dharma form is dharma, just as a heated iron ball is hot only at that moment.
This rule
when extended to Jiva is described as follows in nineth gatha: When jiva
manifests in shubh or ashubha form then he himself is shubha or ashubha.
Manifesting in shuddha bhava form he is shuddha only. Just as with the
background of red or black flower the transparent sapphire jewel appears red or black in the same way the soul
manifesting in the forms of shubha or ashubha himself is shubha or ashubha.
When he manifests in shuddha form then like the sapphire jewel he also is
shuddha.
This leads
to the maxim in tenth gatha that no substance in the loka is without
manifestation and substances exist within their dravya-guna-paryaya. Hence
nothing exists without manifestations in the forms of
dravya-kshetra-kaal-bhava. At any given moment it cannot happen that an inactive
dravya be present without its explicit manifestation. Now the substance is
eternally in the form of the dravya, accompanied with gunas (qualities) which
are specific to it and manifesting sequentially in the form of paryayas (modes), thus of the nature
of Utpad-Vyaya-dhrovya (generation-destruction-permanence). Here special
emphasis is being laid to establish that manifestation is not different from
the substance while at the same time the
substance has nature of remaining the same from another aspect .
Now in 11th
Gatha it is told that if the soul manifesting in the form of dharma is
engaged in shuddhopayoga then he attains the pleasure of Moksha while being
engaged in shubhopayoga he enjoys the pleasures of heavens. Manifesting in the
form of dharma implies manifesting in veetrag (detached) manner. Now in such a
case in shuddhopayoga there is no opposing force of ragas etc. present causing hindrance hence he can reach
the highest purity level of Moksha. On the other hand if he is engaged in
shubhopayoga then such state epitomizes presence of shubha raga bhavas which
are inherently opposing forces to attainment of total purification. Hence
though he acquires punya bondage, but he does not attain Moksha. Here the
emphasis is laid on practice of shuddhopayoga only with shubhopayoga being a
fall back option when one cannot practice shuddhopayoga.
To complete
the story, Acharya tells the result of Ashubhopayoga in 12th
gatha. On account of Ashubhopayoga, this jiva takes births in Kumanushya (
inferior human forms), tiryanch (animal) and Narak (hell) states and suffering continuously keeps
transmigrating. The implication is that one should avoid ashubhopayoga
altogether since it is not of the form of dharma and it hinders the process of
attaining moksha considerably.
Shuddhopayoga
Adhikar (Gathas 13-20)
In the
preface above, it was concluded that Shuddhopayoga is paramount objective.
Hence here it begins with recounting its benefits in 13th Gatha.
The soul engaged in shuddhopayoga within his soul, taking recourse to own soul,
he enjoys extraordinary pleasures, incomparable, infinite, continuous and
indescribable. Such bliss has never been experienced before. Therefore this is
the real bliss. The pleasures of five senses and mind are just namesake and not
really pleasures.
Who are such
people? This is is replied in 14th Gatha. Those who have
realised the nature of self and others, who are engaged in samyam (restraints)
and tapa (penances), who are veetragi (detached), for whom worldly pleasures
and pains are the same- such shramans (munis) are described as having
shuddhopayoga. Here in this gatha the state of practitioners is described who
would attain the state described in previous gatha.
The next 15th gatha also describes the results of
shuddhopayoga. Such soul with purified shuddhopayoga gets separated from the
karma bondage of Gyanavarana(knowledge obscuring karma), Darshanavarana (vision
obscuring karma), Antaraya (strength obscuring karma), Moha (delusion) forms
and reaches a state beyond all subjects of knowledge i.e attains omniscience.
Why? The
soul is of the nature of knowledge and knowledge is equivalent to the subjects
of knowledge. Once the obscuration of knowledge, vision etc. qualities of soul
are removed, there is no hindrance of
knowledge to know all the subjects of knowledge. Therefore nothing remains
unknown.
The
greatness of such a soul is described in Gatha 16th. In this
manner the soul on attainment of own nature is omniscient, worshipped by all
the leaders of the world and is ‘Swayambhoo’. The term ‘Swayambhoo’ is
explained as one where all the predicates of being doer, deed, means, for, of
etc. are terminated within self hence definitely he has nothing to do with any external thing. Another
thing is that such a state is attained by self on his own without any external
assistance . Therefore there is no dependence on others either.
The bottom
line is that each soul is such bhagwan by nature and its up to him to attain
that state by himself. No one can help him to attain it nor can anyone prevent
it. Presently that state is obscured and by his own efforts he can reveal it
within himself.
Now in 17th
Gatha the glory of such bhagwan is
described in another way. Although it is known that every substance has
nature of generation-destruction-permanence,
the bhagwan soul has carried out the wonder of generation without destruction,
destruction without generation and at the same time retaining permanence,
generation and destruction.
This is
explained as follows: With the blessings
of Shuddhopayoga, the soul attains Keval Gyan which is his own pure nature and
it is generated such that it would never be destroyed. On the other hand the
moha-raga-dwesha which were the cause of his impure nature have been totally
destroyed such that they would never be generated again. Therefore the soul
would remain Siddha for ever. That’s why it is said that he has achieved the
wonder of generation without destruction and destruction without generation.
Both are from different aspects. At the same time in his soul the
generation-destruction-permanence
continues to be existent since his keval gyan paryaya keeps generating
and destroying every moment ( every new paryaya continues to have keval gyan)
while his dravya nature is permanent.
The same
aspect is highlighted in Gatha 18th saying that in all the
substances there is generation from aspect of some paryaya while there is
destruction with respect to some other paryaya. From aspect of some paryaya the
substance is permanent.
It implies
that at every samaya of time a new paryaya is generated of the substance while
the present paryaya is destroyed. However the substance remains the same from
aspects of its qualities which are permanent and do not change. Just as gold is
seen to be generated in the form of bangle while gold in the ring form was destroyed. Still the gold
remained as gold in terms of its brightness, yellowness, weight etc. This rule
is applicable to all substances hence soul as dravya also conforms to it and
this dictates his inherent basic nature.
A question
is asked pertaining to 13th gatha. How can bhagwan enjoy bliss
without having sensory knowledge by means of shuddhopayoga only?
This is
answered in Gathas 19-20. With the destruction of Ghati karmas, the
Swayambhoo bhagwan attains knowledge and bliss beyond senses since his
splendour is great with extraordinary powers. He does not experience body
related happiness-unhappiness since knowledge and bliss are beyond senses.
The four
ghati karmas are gyanavarana, darshanavarana, antaraya and mohaniya. With their
complete destruction there is no hindrance for the nature of soul to flourish
in unbounded manner. These are denoted as infinite foursome of knowledge,
vision, bliss and strength. The pure soul does not have restrictions of body
and senses. Just as fire does not experience the hammer blows on iron ball, in
the same way the pure soul does not experience body related sufferings. Therefore
even in Arihant state, although body is present with bhagwan and siddhahood is
not yet attained, he does not experience any sufferings of the body.
With this
the shuddhopayoga Adhikar is completed.
Continued…..
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