Acharya Mahaprajna
6.106 evaṃ se uṭṭhie ṭhiyappā, aṇihe acale cale, abahilesse parivvae.
In this way, the monk exerts himself firmly, absorbed in the self, undaunted by attachment and hatred, and unmoved by hardships. He shakes up his karmic bondage, sustains his perceptive faculty, is deeply engrossed in self-discipline. He should wander untied to anything worldly.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 106
The Sūtra here propounds how a monk, conversant with the essence of the religious discourses, should lead his ascetic life. A monk who is awakened is always aware of his self-discipline. His soul is absolutely firm in spirituality,[1] that is, he is established in the search for a self-nature or in the state of purity due to the elimination-cum-suppression of the passions. He is undaunted, that is unvanquished by attachment and hatred.[2] He is unmoved, that is, unagitated by hardships and privations.[3] He is engaged in giving vigorous shake-up to the karma bound in the past.[4] He is not extrovert in respect of the psychic colouring, that is, he has attuned himself[5] to the self-discipline. He leads a balanced ascetic life.[6]
6.107 saṃkhāyapesalaṃ dhammaṃ, diṭṭhimaṃ pariṇivvuḍe.
Having contemplated the religion which leads to pacification of passions, the monk of deep insight is liberated.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 107
A monk with right vision is liberated, that is, he becomes tranquil.[7] The cause of the tranquillity is the discipline, and, therefore, it is said that he attains extinction of passions on knowing the best religion. Here two sources of the attainment of tranquillity are propounded, viz., right view and discriminating knowledge of the discipline, leading to the pacification of the passions.[8]
6.108 tamhā saṃgaṃ ti pāsaha.
Therefore, look at worldly ties.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 108
Tranquillity is achieved through the knowledge of the religion leading to peace law and the right view. Therefore, one should look at the sensual objects, such as sounds and the like, as the worldly tie. Worldly tie is clinging, that is, impediment to spiritual tranquillity. In the Cūrṇi, attachment,[9] impediment and obstruction are given as synonyms.[10]
6.109 gaṃthehiṃ gaḍhiyā ṇarā, visaṇṇā kāmavippiyā.
People clinging to their relatives and bogged down in the sensual objects are tortured by lust.
Bhāyam Sūtra 109
The persons who are bound by worldly ties, that is, own relatives ana the like, and are bogged down, that is, immersed in the sensual objects are overwhelmed by desires of the nature of sex impulses.[11]
The lust-quâ-desire aggravates due to the sensual objects. The lust-quâ-sensual impulse is aggravated by attachment to relatives and discontent with sensual objects.
6.110 tamhā lūhāo ṇo parivittasejjā.
Therefore, a monk should not be weary of self-discipline.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 110
As the persons who are bound to worldly pleasures and overwhelmed by them are subject to lack of peace, caused by the desires, one should not be weary of self-discipline.[12]
6.111 jassime āraṃbhā sawato sawattāe supariṇṇāyā bhavaṃti, jesime lūsiṇo ṇo parivittasaṃti, se vaṃtā kohaṃ ca māṇaṃ ca māyaṃ ca lobhaṃ ca.
The monk who has comprehended and given up all kinds of violence in all aspects, of which people who dishonour the discipline of shaking off the passions are not afraid, completely eschews the passions of anger, pride, deceit and greed.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 111
The violators of the discipline of shaking off the attachment to close relatives[13] and the like are not afraid of their acts of violence. The monks who have completely[14] comprehended[15] those acts of violence in all their aspects relinquish all the four kinds of passions such as anger and the like. The violators of the discipline who are not afraid of their acts of violence cannot relinquish the passions of the anger and the like, which are bound up with those acts of violence. Certainly, the persons who are deeply involved in violent activities are prone to anger and the like. Who pacifies anger and the like? Certainly, the person who refrains from all kinds of violent activities.
6.112 esa tuṭṭe viyāhite tti bemi.
Such (relinquisher) monk is called the 'breaker'—thus do I say.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 112
The monk who has purged himself of all ties with the relatives and has stopped all karmic inflow and eliminated the karma acquired in the past is called breaker (of the bondages). Thus do I say.
6.113 kāyassa viovāe, esa saṃgāmasīme viyāhie. se hn pāraṃgame muṇī, avi hammamāṇe phalagāvayaṭṭhī, kālevaṇīte kaṃkhejja kālaṃ, jāva sarīrabheu. - tti bemi.
The moment of abandonment of the body at the time of death is the vanguard of the battlefield of life. The monk who is not defeated in such battle and does not feel depressed, when afflicted by hardships, is the crosser of the whirl of saṃsāra. He should not feel depressed, when he emaciates body and the passions by the practice of external and internal austerities like the plank of wood growing thin when chiselled on both sides. While nearing death, he should abide by his vow, till the abandonment of the body, without desire to hasten death.—Thus do I say.
Bhāṣyaṃ Sūtra 113
Death is the touchstone of life. The aspirant should be with tranquilized mind at the moment of death as pointed out in the Sūtra. This abandonment of the body is the front line of the battle. Just as the victorious warrier achieves the desired end in the forefront of the battlefield, exactly so the victorious aspirant attains tranquillity at the moment of giving up his body. The monk who is not disgusted with the practice of the religious discipline, nor does he retrace from it, even when tormented by troubles and tribulations, succeeds in crossing the ocean of saṃsāra. Similarly, the state of the monk who attenuates his body by means of external and internal and is unmoved like the plank of wood well-chiselled and evened out on both sides, and so the monk desires to undergo death befitting a sage, when the moment of death arrives; in other words he aspires for wisely death by means of fasting, when the signs of death are manifest. He stands still with equanimity, till the end of his life, hankering neither for life nor for death.[16]
(b) Ācārāṅga Cūrṇi, p.240: aṇiheti ṇa ṇiheti tavoviriyaṃ ṇa ṇihaṃti.
(b) Ācārāṅga Vṛtti, patra 233: tathā calaḥ aniyatavihāritvāt.
asaṃjamavivajjayao vā ṇivutto, pariṇivvāyamāṇe vā pariṇivvatteti vuccati.
Attachment can be forsworn by perceiving it. One who does not perceive it, cannot forswear it. In the method of sādhanā laid down by Bhagavān Mahāvῑra, knowledge and perception amount to watchfulness or alertness. Therefore, it constitutes an important method of forswearing attachment. The stronger the Knowledge and Perception, the weaker the effects of karma. On the weakening of the effects of karma, attachment is extinguished by itself.
Vṛttau 'kāmakkaṃtā' iti vyākhyātamasti - kāmaiḥ - icchāmadanarūpairākrāntāḥ - avaṣṭabdhāḥ. (Ācārāṅga Vṛtti, patra 233)
(b) Ācārānga Vṛtti, patra 234: rūkṣāt - saṃyamāt.
(b) Ācārāṅga Vṛtti, patra 234: lūṣiṇo lūṣaṇaśῑlāḥ hiṃsakāḥ.
Hence, the author of the Āgama has laid down that one should not lose his wits, on encountering the Death. But for this, one has to be prepared beforehand; one cannot hope to escape delusion at the eleventh hour. This preparation consists of attenuation of body and passions. Cf. Sūtrakṛtāṅga Sūtra, 1.7.30.
