Acharya Mahaprajna
4.27 uveha eṇaṃ bahiyāya loyaṃ,
se savvalogaṃsije kei viṇṇū.
aṇuvīi pāsaṇikkhittadaṃḍā,
je kei sattā paliya cayaṃti..
Overlook the world which is opposed to non-violence. The person who does so is the wisest in the world. Reflect and see that the person who gives up violence destroys his karma.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 27
(The disciple is admonished thus:) 'Comprehend the external world of heretics who are opposed to non-violence'. Comprehension is twofold: a close look at an object[1] and non-indulgence[2] in what is not right. You should not pay attention to the doctrines that are averse to non-violence. Whoever closely observes the living world is a knowledgeable person in this world.
'Look thoughtfully, whoever has abandoned the weapon of violence has destroyed the accumulated karma'.
4.28 narā muyaccā dhammavidu tti aṃjū.
Only the person who are not-attached to the body can know the discipline and only those who know the discipline are straightforward.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 28
Only those who are dead to embellishment of the body[3] know the principle of ahiṃsā. Only those who are not attached to the body are upright.
In the Sthānāṅga, three varieties of possessions have been istinguished. Among them, the first and formost is 'body'. Persons ttached to the body indulge in manifold violence. This is why Lord Mahāvīra disclosed the secret: 'Until and unless a person is dead to his body, he cannot really know the discipline'. The implication is that the person who is not dead to his body does not practise the discipline, although he learns and studies it.
It can be said that the person knowing the discipline is upright and also that the upright is the knower of the discipline. Says the Uttarādhyayana (3.12): 'Purity belongs to the upright and the discipline flourishes in one who is pure'.[4]
4.29 āraṃbhajaṃ dukkhamiṇaṃti ṇaccā, evamāhu samattadaṃsiṇo.
Knowing that pain is produced by violence one should desist from violence. The seers of equality have propounded this truth.
4.30 te sawe pāvāiyā dukkhassa kusalā pariṇṇamudāharaṃti.
Whatever pain there is, all that is due to violence. Knowing this truth, one should abstain from violence. The saints who visualized equality propounded this truth.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtras 29,30
Knowing that suffering is due to violence, one should desist from violence. This is the verdict of the wise.[5]
All the teachers who are adept explained comprehension, that is, discriminative knowledge for the elimination of suffering; nobody is able to make an end of pain without eschewing violence. This is the central idea of the Sūtra 30.
4.31 iti kamma pariṇṇāya savvaso.
So the aspirant for emancipation, knowing the karma in all respects, should abandon it.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 31
'Emancipation' means elimination of all karma. One can not comprehend the nature of emancipation without comprehending the nature of bondage. Therefore, one should exert for the karmic elimination by comprehending the nature of karma. Karma is the cause of pain. One should, therefore, have a discriminative knowledge of karma for the elimination of it. This is the central idea of the Sūtra.
4.32 iha āṇākaṃkhī paṃḍie aṇihe egamappāṇaṃ saṃpehāe dhuṇe sarīraṃ, kasehi appāṇaṃ, jarehi appāṇaṃ.
The wise person devoted to commandment should not be afflicted by passions. Perceiving his ownself, he should shake his karma-body, thin his passions, and desiccate them.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 32
Now the way to discrimination of karma is explained. Ordinary man is afflicted with the affliction of attachment and hatred. The person who is devoted to the commandment of the omniscient is a wise man who practises detachment. Only such person is unafflicted[6] by attachment, hatred and delusion, sensual objects and passions. He should perceive only the soul and shake off the karma-body.[7] 'This soul is lonely and alone. It is separate from the body'. This is the practice of the contemplation on separation of the soul from the body.[8] For instance, 'he alone indulges in action and he alone reaps the fruit. It is born alone and dies alone and transmigrates alone to other life'. This is the practice of the contemplation on the oneness as explained in the Cūrṇi.
One should emaciate the passion of the soul and weaken them. The order of the separation of karma is shaking,[9] thinning and desiccating.
4.33 jahā juṇṇāiṃ kaṭṭhāiṃ, havvavāho pamatthati, evaṃ attasamāhie aṇihe.
Even as fire consumes the worn out wood, exactly so the ascetic, engrossed in meditation and unafflicted by passions, shakes, thins and desiccates the karmic body.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 33
The acts of shaking, thinning and desiccating are like those of fire that burns the rotten wood. The soul engrossed in meditaiton[10] and uninflicted by passions destroys the karma.[11]
4.34 vigiṃca kohaṃ avikaṃpamāṇe, imaṃ ṇiruddhāuyaṃ saṃpehāe.
Perceiving that the duration of anger is limited, the ascetic should remain unmoved and give up anger.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 34
Cultivate discriminative knowledge of anger. Anger arises when there is convulsion in the soul-units. Therefore, it has been said that one should cultivate the knowledge of the anger, being free from convulsion. The anger automatically subsides in the state of non-convulsion.
'Contemplating on the evanescence of the life-span, check your anger'. - This is the supporting Sūtra. This is the exposition approved by the Cūrṇi and the Vṛtti. The more appropriate meaning should be 'having comprehended the anger of limited duration' instead of 'contemplating on the evanescence,........check your anger'.
The concept of the 'life-span of human being' is an imported item which does not follow from the context. The idea of anger is relevant here. The anger is not eternal.[12] It is only momentary, and therefore capable of being discriminated and given up.[13]
4.35 dukkhaṃ ca jāṇa aduvvāgamessaṃ.
You should know the present and future pains which are produced by anger.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 35
The person burning with anger produces mental suffering. You should know this nature of suffering or, the predisposition of anger is produced and nurtured by anger. That creates suffering in the future. The karma due to anger, when brought to fruition, produces suffering in the future. One should know this. The knowledge of this process of the generation of suffering is the spiritual support for the discriminative knowledge of anger.
4.36 puḍho phāsāiṃ ca phase.
The angry person suffers from various pains and ailments.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 36
An angry person is afflicted by various touches such as hot and cold, or he is afflicted by various diseases.
A person overwhelmed with anger throws off clothes even in winter and keeps naked.
Even when the icy wind blows in midnight, he rests under the open sky.
Under the sway of anger, a person exposes himself to scorching midday sun, lies on terribly heated stone slab and throws himself in furiously burning fire.
Under the stress of anger, the ailments like the weakness of heart and aggrevation of biles are produced. In the Vṛtti, the sufferings in the life hereafter due to such angry conditions are also mentioned.[14]
4.37 loyaṃ capasavipphaṃdamāṇaṃ.
Look at the world incessantly trembling under the sway of anger.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 37
The human world is trembling with anger. They run from place to place in search of remedy for the physical and mental suffering caused by anger. Look at this situation with the eye of discriminative knowledge.
4.38 je ṇivvuḍā pāvehiṃ kammehiṃ, aṇidāṇā te viyāhiyā.
The people who tranquillize their angry deeds are designated as free from fetter.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 38
People who are placed and freed from evil acts of anger and the like are fetterless. This has been enjoined by the Lord. 'Fetter' means bondage.
Those who have calmed down their anger have no bondage of the nature of anger, or what is produced by the state of anger. This is why they are free from bondage.
4.39 tamhā tivijjo ṇo paḍisamjalijjāsi. - tti bemi.
Therefore the person versed in three sciences should not burn with anger even when confronted with any cause of anger. - Thus do I say.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 39
Anger is the breeding ground of varieties of miseries, and therefore, a person versed in the three sciences15 should not get irritated, that is, feel angry. He should not return anger for anger.
(b) Ācārāṅga Vṛtti, patra 171: samatvadarśinaḥ samyaktvadarśinaḥ samastadarśino vā.
Vṛttau ca - snihyate—śilaṣyate'ṣṭaprakāreṇa karmmaṇeti sniho, na sniho'snihaḥ, yadi vā snihyatīti sniho - rāgavān, yo na tathā so'snihaḥ, upalakṣaṇārthatvāccāsya rāgadveṣarahita ityarthaḥ, athavā niścayena hanyata iti nihataḥ bhāvaripubhirindriyakaṣāyaka-rmmabhiḥ yo na tathā so'nihataḥ. (Ā. Vṛtti, patra 173).
The soul indulges in actions, bears fruits, takes birth, dies and transmigrates, all in utter solitariness:
Ekaḥ prakurute karma, bhuṅkte ekaśca tatphalam.
Jāytyeko mriyatyeko, ekoyāti bhavāntaram..Separateness-oriented meditation means the soul is separate from the body. The explanation of the above aphorism by the commentator (Vṛttikāra) is as follows: 'I' have always been solitary: ‘I’ belong to none else;
‘I’ behold no one whom I can say I belong to nor do I behold one whom I can designate as mine.
Sadaiko(a)haṃ na me kaścit, nāhamanyasya kasyacit.
No taṃ paśyāmi yasyāhaṃ, nāsau bhāvītiyo mama..The pith of worldliness is nothing but disaster. Who, whose and where are one's kith and kin? Who, whose and where are strangers? These kith and kin as well as strangers all go round in cycles of birth and death. At times, the kith and kin become strangers, and vice-versa. There comes a time when nobody remains as kith and kin and nobody a stanger. Saṃsāra evāvamanarthasāraḥ.
Kaḥ kasya ko (a) tra svajanaḥ paro vā.
Sarve bhramantaḥ svajanāḥ pare ca.
Bhavanti bhūtvā na bhavanti bhūyaḥ.Ponder thus! ‘I am all alone. Nobody was mine in the past, nor will ever be in the future. It is because of my karma that I delude myself and consider others as mine. The truth is that I was alone in the past and will ever be all alone.
Vicintyametad bhavatāhameko,
Na me (a) sti kaścit pur at o na paschāt.
Svakarmabhir bhrāntiriyaṃ mamaiva.
Ahaṃ purastādahameva paścāt.
(a) Samādhi: Complete concentration of mind on the inner Self i.e., pure consciousness.
(b) Anasakti. Complete unattachment to all external i.e. material objects including one's own body.
Indication of these two means makes it patently clear that here the term 'body' means the subtle karma-body, and not the gross audārika one. Emaciation of the latter is not in question.
A sādhaka emaciated himself by many long fasts, but his egotism remained as strong as ever. Wherever he went, he made a show of his long fasting and sought praise. An experienced and wiser ascetic advised him. "O brother! Wither away your sensuality, passions and egotism. There is not benefit in emaciating this gross body. We will never praise you because of your withered body. Mere withering of your gross body does not make you praiseworthy.
Indiyāṇi kasāe ya, gārave ya kise kuṛu.
Ṇo vayaṃ te pasaṃsāmo, kisam sāhu sarīragaṃ.
- Niśītha-bhāṣya, gāthā 3758.Bhagavān Mahāvῑra has referred to the withering away of the subtle karma-body. It is of secondary importance whether the gross body is emaciated or not.
Vṛttikāreṇa evaṃ vyākhyātam—'idaṃ' manuṣyatvaṃ 'niruddhāyuṣkaṃ' niruddham - parigalitamāyuṣkaṃ '(yatra tat) 'samprekṣya' paryālocya krodhādiparityāgaṃ vidadhyāt. (Ācārāṅga Vṛtti, patra 173)
Cūrṇivyākhyā—iti kāraṇā iti āmaṃtaṇaṃ evaṃ jāṇaṃto saddahaṃto ya vijjaṃ bhavati he vidvan!. (Ā.Cū. p.148).
tasmādatividvān—viditāgamasadbhāvaḥ. (Ā. Vṛ. patra 174).
Gītāyāmapi (9.20) traividyapadasya prayogo dṛśyate.
