Jethalal S. Zaveri
Prof. Muni Mahendra Kumar
theyādῑ avarāhe kuvvadijo so sasaṃkido hodi.
mā bajjhe haṃ keṇa vi coro tti jaṇamhi viyaraṃto.. 14
jo ṇa kuṇadi avarāhe so ṇissaṃko du jaṇavade bhamadi.
ṇa vi tassa bajjhiduṃ je ciṃtā uppajjadi kayā vi..15
evaṃ hi sāvarāho bajjhāmi ahaṃ tu saṃkido cedā.
jai puṇa ṇirāvarāho ṇissaṃko haṃ ṇa bajjhāmi..16
(Jo) A person (theyādῑ avarāhe kuvvai) who has committed the crime such as theft, (so sasaṃkido hodi ['] jaṇamhi viyaraṃto coro tti keṇa vi haṃ mā bajjhe [']) while moving about in the public places surrounded by crowds of people, [wanders about] with the apprehension that ict nobody catch me as a thief [feels guilty conscience and is constantly worried with anxiety and fear of being arrested].
[However] (Jo) The person (avarāhe na kuṇai) who has not committed any crime, ( so du jaṇavae ṇissaṃko bhamadῑ) moves about freely in the public places among the crowds, [free from a guilty conscience] (je) and therefore (tassa bajjhiduṃ cimtā ṇa kayāi vi uppajjai) he is never obssessed by the anxiety of being arrested [i.e., he remains free from any anxiety or fear of being arrested].
(Evaṃ hi) In the same way, (sāvarāho cedā) the soul which is guilty [of longing for alien possession], (saṃkido ['’] ahaṃ tu bajjhāmi [']) remains apprehensive that "I am guilty, and hence, I will be arrested,"[—is always full of fear and anxiety of incurring the bondage of karma]; (jai puṇa) on the other hand, if (ṇirāvarāho) the soul is [innocent and] guiltless, (nissaṃko haṃ ṇa bajjhāmi) then he is doubtless that "I will not be bound," [i.e., he is free from doubt and anxiety of bondage].
Annotations:
In actual life, crime is punishable by law. The laws are enacted by the government of the land and are enforced by various means including the police force. Stealing is a crime almost everywhere. A thief is apprehended by the police and produced and prosecuted in a court of law and punished. The punishment is generally imprisonment for duration of time depending upon the gravity of the crime. In these circumstances, it is but natural that, a person who has committed a crime, say, of stealing, always moves in the public with fear and anxiety of being apprehended and punished. His guilty conscience would not permit him even a moment to remain free from anxiety or fear. On the other hand, honest people who have no desire to commit theft, because they do not covet and long for other people's property, move about in the public places without fear or anxiety of being apprehended by the police. Since no crime has been committed by them, their conscience is free from being guilty and since they do not covet alien wealth, they are free from the anxiety of ever committing a crime.
The author uses this simple analogy—a common condition of everyday life—to illustrate the difference between the guilty and the guiltless, in the spiritual life. In the everyday life, the alien property which is liable to be stolen is in the form of cash, jewelry, cattle and the like. In the spiritual life the alien property consists of characteristic attributes possessed by non-self, i.e. physical existence which is alien to the soul. Whenever the soul commits the mistake of coveting or claiming the alien characteristics as its own, it becomes guilty of a spiritual crime and is liable to be punished, and the punishment is in the form of bondage of karma, besides suffering the misery of a guilty conscience. On the other hand, the soul who has no desire and does not covet or claim the impure dispositions as its own, i.e., disowns all psychological distortions, (and enjoys its own pure attributes), is not only free from the guilt of a crime but is also free from the bondage of knowledge-obscuring and other species of karma. The purpose of discussion in these verses together with the illustration from real life, is to emphasize the power and efficacy of Self-meditation which was explained in the annotations of the preceding verses. The self has been successful in becoming guiltless and fearless by eradicating all attraction for anything that is non-self and concentration upon the formless (arūpi) attributes of the transcendental self which leads to the realization of the intermediate stage-the interior self (antarātmā). In the succeeding verses, the author identifies the final stage of self-meditation with self-adoration and also elaborates upon the term guilt (aparādha).
