Jainism Sutra II-SÛTRAKRITÂ?GA Bk1-Lec 15-The Yamakas

[Anne Terri]

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

p. 329

FIFTEENTH LECTURE
CALLED
THE YAMAKAS 1.

What is past, present, and to come, all this is known to the Leader, the Saviour, who annihilates the hindrances to right faith. (1)

The annihilator of doubt knows the incomparable (Law); he, the expounder of the incomparable (Law), is not inclined towards this or that (heretical doctrine). (2).

On this or that (article of the creed he has) the correct opinion; hence he is rightly called a true (man); he who always possesses the truth, is kind towards his fellow-creatures. (3)

Towards your fellow-creatures be not hostile: that is the Law of him who is rich in control; he who is rich in control renounces everything, and in this (world meditates on the) reflections on life 2. (4)

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He whose soul is purified by meditating on those reflections is compared to a ship in water; like a ship reaching the shore he gets beyond misery. (5)

A wise man gets beyond it who knows the sins of this world; sinful acts are got rid of by him who does not undertake any new acts. (6)

He who does not undertake new acts does not acquire Karman, and he verily understands (Karman); understanding it he becomes a Great Hero 1, who is not born (again) and does not die. (7)

A Great Hero, who has no Karman, does not die.--As the wind extinguishes a light, (so he puts down) the lovely women in this world. (8)

Those men whom women do not seduce, value Môksha most; those men are free from bondage and do not desire life. (9)

Turning from worldly life, they reach the goal by pious acts; by their pious acts they are directed (towards Liberation), and they show the way to others. (10)

The preaching of the Law (has different effect) on different creatures; he who is rich in control, is. treated with honour 2, but does not care for it; he exerts himself, subdues his senses, is firm, and abstains from sexual intercourse. (i1)

(He should not yield to temptations as a pig which) is decoyed by wild rice, being proof against sins, and free from faults. Being free from faults he always

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subdues his senses, and has reached the incomparable cession of Karman 1. (12)

Knowing the incomparable (control), he should not be hostile towards anybody, in thoughts, words, or deeds, having eyes (to see everything). (13)

He truly is the eye of men who (dwells so to speak) on the end 2 of desire; on its end (i.e. edge) glides the razor, on its end (i.e. rim) rolls the wheel. (14)

Because the wise use the ends (of things, i.e. bad food, &c.), they are called 'makers of an end' here. Here in the world of men we are men to fulfil the Law. (15)

In this creed which surpasses the world, (men) become perfected saints or gods, as I have heard; and I have heard that outside the rank of men this is not so 3. (16)

Some (heretics) have said that they (viz. the gods) put an end to misery 4; but others (Gainas) have repeatedly said that this (human) body is not easily obtained. (17)

To one whose soul has left (human life), it is not easy again to obtain instruction (in the Law), nor is such a mental disposition which they declare appropriate for adopting the Law 5. (18)

How can it even be imagined that he should

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be born again, who professes the pure, complete, unparalleled Law, and is a receptacle of the unparalleled Law? (19)

How could the wise Tathâgatas be born again, the Tathâgatas who engage in no undertakings, the supreme, the eyes of the world? (20)

And there has been declared by the Kâsyapa the supreme condition 1, by realising which some happy and wise men reach excellence. (21)

A wise man who has gained strength (in control) which leads to the expiation of sins, annihilates his former works, and does not do new ones. (22)

The Great Hero does no actions which are the effects of former sins. By his actions he is directed (towards Môksha), abstaining from works which are entailed by birth 2. (23)

That which all saints value highly (viz. control), destroys the thorn (viz. Karman); practising it some have been liberated, and others have become gods. (24)

There have been wise men, and there will be pious men, who having come to the end and made manifest the end of the incomprehensible path, have been liberated. (25)

Thus I say.

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Footnotes

329:1 This lecture has been named from its opening words gamaîyam, which also means, consisting of yamakas (compare Journal of the German Oriental Society, vol. xl, p. 101). For in this lecture each verse or line opens with a word repeated from the end of the preceding one. This artifice is technically called sri?khala-yamaka, or chain-yam aka, a term which seems to be contained in another name of our lecture, mentioned by the author of the Niryukti (verse 28), viz. âdâniya-sa?kaliyâ. For sa?kaliyâ is the Prâkrit for sri?khala (e.g. in our text I, 5, 2, 20), though Sîlâ?ka here renders it wrongly sa?kalita; and âdâniya by itself is used as a name of our lecture.

329:2 These are the twelve bhâvanâs or meditations on the vanity of life and the world in general, and on the excellence of the Law, &c.

330:1 Mahâvîra.

330:2 Pûyanâsaê, explained by pûganâ-âsvâdaka. I should prefer pûgâ-nâsaka, who abolished the worship of gods, in which case the following word anâsaê = an-âsaya might be rendered: he makes no plans.

331:1 Sandhipattê. Sandhi is explained Karmavivaralakshanam bhâvasandhim.

331:2 There is a play on the word 'end' in this and the next verse which to a modern mind savours more of the absurd than the profound.

331:3 Perfection cannot be obtained by other creatures than men.

331:4 I.e. reach final beatitude.

331:5 The words as they are preserved do not construe; the meaning, however, must have been about what I have given in the translation.

332:1 Viz. control.

332:2 Gammayam. The commentators explain it yan matam; but I think it is = ganmagam.

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