Book 1, Lecture 1, Chapter 2

Jaina Sutras, Part II (SBE45), tr. by Hermann Jacobi, [1895], at sacred-texts.com

SECOND CHAPTER.

Again some ² say: 'It is proved that there are individual souls; they experience pleasure and pain; and (on dying) they lose their state of life. (1)

'But misery (and pleasure) is not caused by (the souls) themselves; how could it be caused by other (agents, as time, &c.)? Pleasure and misery, final beatitude ³ and temporal (pleasure and pain) are not

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caused by (the souls) themselves, nor by others; but the individual souls experience them; it is the lot assigned them by destiny.' This is what they (i.e. the fatalists) say. (2, 3)

Those who proclaim these opinions, are fools who fancy themselves learned; they have no knowledge, and do not understand that things depend partly on fate, and partly on human exertion ¹. (4)

Thus (say) some heretics ²; they are very bold men; if they act up to their principles, they will never be delivered from misery. (5)

As the swift deer who are destitute of protection, are frightened where there is no danger, and not frightened where there is danger; (6)

(As) they dread safe places, but do not dread traps; they are bewildered by ignorance and fear, and run hither and thither; (7)

If they did jump over the noose or pass under it, they would escape from the snare; but the stupid animal does not notice ³ it; (8)

The unhappy animal, being of a weak intellect, runs into the dangerous (place), is caught in the snare, &c., and is killed there; (9)

So some unworthy Sramanas who hold wrong doctrines are afraid of what is free from danger, and are not afraid of real dangers. (to)

The fools dread the preaching of the Law, but

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they do not dread works, being without discernment and knowledge. (11)

Shaking off greed ¹, pride ², deceit ³, and wrath ⁴, one becomes free from Karman. This is a subject (which an ignorant man, like) a brute animal, does not attend to. (12)

The unworthy heretics who do not acknowledge this, will incur death an endless number of times, like deer caught in a snare. (13)

All Brâhmanas and Sramanas contend that they possess the knowledge (of the truth), but the creatures in the whole world do not know anything. (14)

As a Mlêkkha ⁵ repeats what an Ârya has said, but does not understand the meaning, merely repeating his words, so the ignorant, though pretending to possess knowledge, do not know the truth, just as an uninstructed Mlêkkha. (15, 16)

The speculations of the Agnostics cannot lead to knowledge; they cannot reach the truth by themselves, still less teach it to other men. (17)

As when a man in a wood who does not know it, follows a guide who also does not know it, both being unacquainted (with the place), come to great trouble; (18)

As when one blind man is the guide of another, the man walks a great distance, loses his way, or follows a wrong way; (19)

Thus some who search after salvation and pretend

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to practise the (true) Law, follow the false Law and do not arrive at the thoroughly right (thing, viz. self-control). (20)

Thus some (wrong philosophers) do not apply to others for arguments, but they continue to err because they believe their own arguments to be right ¹. (21)

Thus arguing according to their light, and ignorant about what is right and wrong, they do not get out of misery as birds do not get out of their cage. (22)

They praise their own creed and blame that of their opponents, but those who act in this respect the part of philosophers, will be kept confined in the Circle of Births ². (23)

There is the doctrine of the Kriyâvâdins ³, which has been previously explained; it augments the misery of worldly existence of those who do not well consider the nature of acts. (24)

'He who intends (to kill) a living being but does not do it by (an act of) his body, and he who unknowingly kills one, both are affected by that act through a slight contact (with it) only, but the demerit (in their case) is not fully developed ⁴.' (25)

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'There are three ways of committing sins: by one's own activity, by commission, by approval (of the deed). (26)

'These are the three ways of committing sins. Thus by purity of the heart one reaches Nirvâna. (27)

'A layman may kill his son (during a famine) and eat him; a wise (monk) who partakes of the meat, will not be defiled by the sin ¹.' (28)

The mind of those who sin in thoughts is not pure; they are wrong, they do not conduct themselves carefully ². (29)

Men attached to pleasure, who think that the above-mentioned doctrines will save them, commit sins. (30)

As a blind-born man getting into a leaky boat, wants to reach the shore, but is drowned during the passage ³, so some unworthy, heretical Sramanas wish to get beyond the Circle of Births, but they are whirled round in it. (31, 32)

Thus I say.

Footnotes

239:2 They are the fatalists whose peculiar opinions are stated in verses 2 and 3.

239:3 Sêhiyam = saiddhikam, i.e. môkshê bhavam sukham. Another explanation of the commentator makes saiddhika those pleasures which depend on external causes, as wreaths, sandal, &c., and asaiddhika the pleasures of the mind.

240:1 To render niyatâniyatam.

240:2 Pâsattha, usually translated pârsvastha 'outsider,' those who do not acknowledge true arguments; another rendering is pâsastha 'held in bondage.'

240:3 Dêhati = pasyati. The form dekkhati occurs in the Prâkrit of plays.

241:1 Savvappaga = sarvâtmaka, lôbha.

241:2 Viukkassa = vyutkarsha, mâna.

241:3 Nûma = mâyâ.

241:4 Appattiya = krôdha.

241:5 It is worthy of note that the Mlêkkhas here are represented as not understanding the language of the Âryas.

242:1 The last part of the verse might also be translated: 'because these fools believe the subject to be cleared up (mañgû) by their own arguments.'

242:2 There is a play on the words viussanti and viussiyâ, in the last line of this verse viussanti is a denominative verb from viusa = vidvân, and is translated vidvân ivâ karati. Viussiya = vi + ut + srita.

242:3 See above, p. 83. Sîlâṅka defines the Kriyâvâdins here as men who contend that the principal means of reaching Môksha is kaityakarma, the construction of sanctuaries.

242:4 An intentional killing of a living being must actually take place in order to induce the Karman on the soul. If one of the essential conditions which constitute the guilt of slaughter (himsâ), p. 243 is wanting the Karman is still produced; however, it does not take a firm hold of the soul, but merely 'touches' it. This is of course the opinion of the Kriyâvâdins.

243:1 According to Sîlâṅka the father too would not be guilty; but this interpretation is against good sense and grammar.

243:2 This is the answer of the Siddhântin to the foregoing propositions.

243:3 The same verse recurs below, I, 11, 30.