Jainism Sutra II-SÛTRAKRITÂ?GA Bk1-Lec 12- The Creed

[Anne Terri]

God's Living Bible - The Third Testament - Research Library - Jainism

TWELFTH LECTURE
CALLED
THE CREED 2.

There are four (heretical) creeds 3 which the disputants severally uphold: 1. the Kriyâvâda, 2. the Akriyâvâda, 3. the Vinayavâda, and 4. the Agñânavâda. (1)

The agnostics 4, though they (pretend to) be

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clever, reason incoherently, and do not get beyond the confusion of their ideas. Ignorant (teachers) speak to ignorant (pupils), and without reflection they speak untruth. (2)

Believing truth to be untruth, and calling a bad man good, the various upholders of Vinaya, asked about it, explain their tenet 1. (3)

Without perceiving the truth they speak thus: this object (viz. Môksha) is realised by us thus (viz. by Vinaya). The Akriyâvâdins who deny Karman 2, do not admit that the action (of the soul is transmitted to) the future moments 3. (4)

They become involved in contradiction in their own assertions; they falter in their speech and are unable to repeat what is said to them 4. This (their opinion) has a valiant counter-opinion, this (our opinion) has no valiant counter-opinion; and Karman has six sources 5. (5)

The Akriyâvâdins who do not understand the truth, bring forward various opinions; many men

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believing in them will whirl round in the endless Circle of Births. (6)

'There rises no sun, nor does it set; there waxes no moon, nor does it wane; there are no rivers running, nor any winds blowing; the whole world is ascertained to be unreal 1.' (7)

As a blind man, though he have a light, does not see colours, &c., because he is deprived of his eye(sight), so the Akriyâvâdin, having a perverted intellect, does not recognise the action (of the soul) though it does exist. (8)

Many men in this world who have studied astrology, the art of interpreting dreams, divination from diagrams, augury, divination from bodily marks, and from portents, and the eight branches (of divination from omens), know the future 2. (9)

(The opponents say that) some forecasts are true, and the prophecies of others prove wrong; therefore they do not study those sciences, but they profess to know the world, fools though they be 3. (10)

The (Kriyâvâdins) Sramanas and Brâhmanas understanding the world (according to their lights), speak thus: misery is produced by one's own works, not by those of somebody else (viz. fate, creator, &c.) 4. But right knowledge and conduct lead to liberation. (11)

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The (Tîrthakaras), being (as it were) the eyes of the world and its leaders, teach the path which is salutary to men; they have declared that the world is eternal inasmuch as creatures are (for ever) living in it, O ye men! (12)

The Râkshasas and the dwellers in Yama's world, the troops 1 of Asuras and Gandharvas, and the spirits that walk the air, and individual beings 2: they will all be born again and again. (13)

(The Samsâra) which is compared to the boundless flood of water, know it to be impassable and of very long duration on account of repeated births 3. Men therein, seduced by their senses and by women, are born again and again both (as movable and immovable beings). (14)

The sinners cannot annihilate their works by new works; the pious annihilate their works by abstention from works; the wise and happy men who got rid of the effects of greed, do not commit sins. (15)

They know the past, present, and future ways of the world; they are leaders of other men, but follow no leader; they are awakened, and put an end to mundane existence. (16)

Averse to injury of living beings, they do not act, nor cause others to act. Always restraining themselves,

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those pious men practise control, and some become heroes through their knowledge. (17) He regards small beings and large beings, the whole world as equal to himself; he comprehends the immense world, and being awakened he controls himself among the careless. (18)

Those who have learned (the truth) by themselves or from others, are able (to save) themselves and others. One should always honour a man, who is like a light and makes manifest the Law after having well considered it. (19)

He who knows himself and the world; who knows where (the creatures) go, and whence they will not return; who knows what is eternal, and what is transient; birth and death, and the future existences of men; (20)

He who knows the tortures of beings below (i.e. in hell); who knows the influx of sin and its stoppage 1; who knows misery and its annihilation,--he is entitled to expound the Kriyâvâda 2, (21)

Being not attached to sounds and colours, indifferent to tastes and smells, not desiring life nor death, guarded by control, and exempt from the Circle (of Births). (22)

Thus I say.

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Footnotes

315:2 Samôsarana = samavasarana. This word and the verb samôsarai are commonly used when Mahâvîra preaches to a meeting (mêlâpaka) gathered round him.

315:3 Compare Uttarâdhyayana XVIII, 23, above p. 83, note 2.

315:4 Annâniyâ = agñânikâs, the followers of the fourth sect.

316:1 Viz. that Môksha is arrived at through Vinaya, discipline.

316:2 Lavâvasa?kî. Lava is explained by karman, and avasa?kî by apasartum sîlam yêshâm tê.

316:3 The meaning is that as everything has but a momentary existence, there is no connection between the thing as it is now, and as it will be in the next moment. This is a doctrine of the Bauddhas. But the Sâ?khyas are also reckoned among the Akriyâvâdins, because, according to them, the âtman does not act.

316:4 Sîlâ?ka in commenting upon this passage has to say a good deal about the Bauddhas. It is perhaps of interest that he mentions their 500 Gâtakas, and not thirty-four which is the recognised number of Gâtakas according to the Northern Buddhist. How Sîlâ?ka came to a knowledge of the numbers of Gâtakas accepted by the Southern Buddhists, I cannot tell.

316:5 Viz. the six Âsravas.

317:1 This is the opinion of the Sûnyavâdins, who are considered to belong to the Akriyâvâdins, because they deny all actions, even such as are perceived by everybody (Sîlâ?ka).

317:2 This would be impossible if the whole world was unreal.

317:3 A various reading, commented upon by the scholiasts, runs thus: âhamsu viggâpalimokkham êva, they say 'that one must give up science.'

317:4 The Kriyâvâdins contend, according to Sîlâ?ka, that works alone, by themselves, without knowledge, lead to Môksha.

318:1 Kâya. The commentators explain this word as denoting the earth-bodies, &c., but from the context it will be seen that it refers to Asuras and Gandharvas, and must be translated by 'troops.'

318:2 Pudhô siyâ = prithak sritâh; according to Sîlâ?ka, prithivyâsritâh. This expression is generally used to denote the lower order of beings.

318:3 To render bhavagahana.

319:1 Âsrava and samvara.

319:2 It is evident that the Gainas considered themselves Kriyâvâdins. I had overlooked this passage when penning the note on p. 83.

The Sacred Books of the East -translated by various Oriental scholars and edited by F. Max Müller Vol. xxii
Gaina Sutras Translated from Prakrit by Hermann Jacobi in two parts -
Jainism Part II -SÛTRAKRITÂ?GA-First Book -Lectures

God's Living Bible - The Third Testament - Research Library - Jainism
Gaina Sutras, Part II (SBE22), translated by Hermann Georg Jacob Jacobi - 1884

This text is in the public domain within the United States, because it was published prior to 1923