Pragnapana Sutra Ek Parichay

Here is a comprehensive summary in English of the provided Jain text about the Pragnapana Sutra, based on the article by Prakashchand Jain:

The article "Pragnapana Sutra: An Introduction" by Prakashchand Jain provides an overview of this important Jain text, highlighting its significance and the content of its 36 sections.

Significance of the Pragnapana Sutra:

• The Pragnapana Sutra is a major Upanga Sutra, considered to be as important among the Upangas as the Vyākhyāprajñapti (Bhagavati Sutra) is among the Anga Sutras.
• It is often referred to by the epithet "Bhagavati Vishesh" (a special Bhagavati), similar to how the Vyākhyāprajñapti is known as "Bhagavati."
• The text is authored by Acharya Shyama.
• It is structured in a question-and-answer format and deals with the subject of dravyanuyoga (theological and metaphysical analysis), specifically focusing on the relationship between Jiva (soul) and Ajava (non-soul).
• While Acharya Malayagiri considers it an Upanga of the Samavāyānga, Acharya Shyama views it as the conclusion of Drishtivada (one of the fourteen Purvas, or ancient scriptures).
• The Bhagavati Sutra frequently references the Pannavaṇā (another name for Pragnapana), indicating its depth and comprehensiveness.
• Scholars like Pt. Dalasukh Malvania draw parallels between the Pragnapana Sutra and the Digambara scripture Shatkhandagama due to their shared root in primordial knowledge and their focus on the theoretical analysis of the soul and karma, covering topics like relative quantities (alpabahutva), spatial extent (avagahana), and interruptions (antara).

Content Overview of the 36 Sections (Padas):

The article briefly describes the subject matter of each of the 36 sections:

1. Pragnapana: Introduces the two types of Pragnapana – Ajiva Pragnapana (non-soul) and Jiva Pragnapana (soul). Ajiva Pragnapana is divided into formless and formed Ajiva. Jiva Pragnapana differentiates between mundane and liberated souls, detailing 15 types of liberated souls and various classifications of mundane souls.
2. Sthanapada (Place): Describes the abodes of various beings, including those in the earth, water, fire, and air elements, as well as two-sensed, three-sensed, four-sensed, and five-sensed beings, and those in different realms (Nairayika, Tiryancha, Bhavanapati, Vyantara, Jyotishi, Vaimanika, and Siddha). Habitats are classified as either permanent (swasthana) or occasional (prasangika vasasthan, such as upapāta and samudghāta).
3. Alpabahutva (Minor-Major Quantity): Analyzes the relative quantities of souls based on 27 factors, including direction, motion, senses, body, thought-activity (yoga), restraint (samaya), passions (kashaya), predispositions (leshya), right faith (samyaktva), knowledge (gyana), perception (darshana), asceticism (samyata), application (upayoga), sustenance (ahara), speech (bhashaka), attachment (parita), sufficiency (paryapta), subtlety (sukshma), consciousness (sangyi), existence (bhava), extended substances (astikaya), ultimate (charama), soul (jiva), region (kshetra), bondage (bandha), matter (pudgala), and the great dandanaka (mahadandaka).
4. Sthitipada (Duration): Details the lifespan of beings in various realms like Nairayika, Bhavanvasi, and elemental beings (earth, water, fire, air, plants), as well as Vikaledriyas, Panchindriyas, humans, Vyantara, Jyotishi, and Vaimanika beings.
5. Visheshapada or Paryayapad (Special/Incarnation): Discusses the different manifestations (paryayas) of beings across the 24 dandanaka categories, from Nairayika to Vaimanika. It also examines the varieties of Ajiva manifestations and the numbers of manifestations of formless and formed Ajiva.
6. Vyutkranti Pada (Transmigration): Explores aspects of transmigration, including the duration of occasional birth (upapāta) and death, whether beings are born with or without interruption, the number of souls born and dying simultaneously, their origin and destination, and the conditions for the binding of the next life's lifespan, including the eight factors of lifespan binding.
7. Uchchhvās Pada (Respiration): Describes the period of taking in and releasing breath by beings like Nairayikas.
8. Sangyā Pad (Consciousness/Sentience): Elaborates on ten types of consciousness or sentient drives in living beings: sustenance (ahara), fear (bhaya), sexual desire (maithuna), possession (parigraha), anger (krodha), pride (mana), delusion (maya), greed (lobha), worldly desires (loka), and a tenth identified as "ora." This is examined in relation to the 24 dandanaka categories.
9. Yonipada (Reproductive Organ/Source): Discusses all living beings in relation to their "yoni" or source, including categories like cold, hot, hot-cold, animate, inanimate, mixed, closed (samvruta), open (vivruta), closed-open (samvruta-vivruta), tortoise-like (kūrmonnat), conch-shaped (shankhavarta), and reed-leaf-shaped (vanshipatra).
10. Charama-Acharama Pada (Ultimate-Non-Ultimate): Examines six concepts related to being ultimate or non-ultimate, including whether a being is ultimate, non-ultimate, both, or neither, and their ultimate points in space. This is considered in relation to the 24 dandanaka categories, considering factors like motion and different substances in relation to the universe (loka) and non-universe (aloka).
11. Bhasha Pada (Speech): Investigates the origin, location, form, nature, and speakers of speech. It details ten types of truthful speech (satya bhasha), ten types of mental speech (manobhasha), ten types of partially true speech (satyamusha), and 26 types of untrue speech (asatyamusha), concluding with 16 types of utterances.
12. Sharira Pada (Body): Discusses the presence of five types of bodies within the 24 dandanaka categories, and how many beings in each category possess specific bodies, differentiating between embodied and liberated souls.
13. Parinama Pada (Transformations): Describes ten types of transformations of the soul (e.g., related to motion) and ten types of transformations of non-soul (e.g., related to bondage).
14. Kashaya Pada (Passions): Outlines the four passions (anger, pride, delusion, greed), their establishment, origin, subtypes, and how they lead to the accumulation, increase, and bondage of karmic activities.
15. Indriya Pada (Sense Organs): Divided into two sections. The first examines the five sense organs in relation to 24 factors like their form and extent. The second discusses the deployment, manifestation, timing of manifestation, attainment, and application of sense organs, along with their spatial extent (avagahana), initial perception (avagraha), investigation (iha), realization (avaya), and retention (dharana). It concludes with a discussion of the different types of sense organs.
16. Prayoga Pada (Application/Intent): Considers 15 types of applications or intents, such as true intent (satyamana prayoga), in relation to beings in the 24 dandanaka categories. It concludes with an analysis of five types of falls or deviations (gatiprapata).
17. Leshya Pada (Predisposition/Aura): Comprises six sections. The first deals with beings having equal karma, equal color, equal predisposition, equal experience, equal action, and equal lifespan. The second describes beings based on the six predispositions (black, blue, red, yellow, white, and variegated). The third provides answers to questions about predispositions. The fourth covers aspects like transformations, essence, color, smell, extent, karmic particles, location, and relative quantities. The fifth discusses the results of predispositions, and the sixth describes the predispositions of beings.
18. Kayasthiti Pada (Duration of Embodiment): Describes the duration for which both soul and non-soul remain in their respective states.
19. Samyaktva Pada (Right Faith): Examines the prevalence of right faith, wrong faith, and mixed faith among beings in the 24 dandanaka categories.
20. Antakriya Pada (Final Action): Explains which beings can perform the "antakriya" (final action) and why. The term "antakriya" is also used to mean ending the current life and attaining a new one, which is analyzed for beings in the 24 dandanaka categories. It is stated that only humans can perform the "antarup antakriya" (action of ending karma), which is described through six aspects.
21. Avagahana Sansthana Pada (Spatial Extent and Form): Deals with the types of bodies, their forms, measurements, accumulation of matter, their mutual relationships, their substance, regions, and the relative quantities of spatial extent.
22. Kriya Pada (Action): Discusses physical and other actions and their varieties, considering all mundane souls in relation to these actions.
23. Karma Prakriti Pada (Karmic Activities): Consists of two sections. The first addresses which beings bind how many karmic activities out of the eight types (like knowledge-obscuring karma). The second describes the subordinate activities of karma and their bondage.
24. Karmabandha Pada (Bondage of Karma): Explains how many karmic activities a being binds when binding specific karmic activities, such as knowledge-obscuring karma.
25. Karmaveda Pada (Experience of Karma): Discusses how many karmic activities a being experiences while binding karmic activities like knowledge-obscuring karma.
26. Karmaveda Bandha Pada (Bondage of Karmic Experience): Explains how many karmic activities a being binds while experiencing karmic activities like knowledge-obscuring karma.
27. Karmaveda Pada (Experience of Karma): (This appears to be a repetition or a slightly different emphasis on the previous point, possibly detailing the quantity of karma experienced).
28. Ahara Pada (Sustenance): Includes two sections. The first explores questions such as how long a sentient eater sustains itself on what, whether it consumes with its entire being or a part, if it consumes all matter, how it transforms sustenance, and the meaning of "lomahara" (hair-eating). The second section covers 13 topics related to sustenance, including the eater, auspiciousness, sentience, predisposition, and faith.
29. Upayoga Pada (Application/Consciousness): Details the types of application or consciousness and how many types are found in different beings.
30. Pashyatta Pada (Perception): Identifies knowledge and perception as the two types of application, discussing beings in relation to their subtypes.
31. Sangyi Pada (Sentient): Examines beings in terms of being sentient, non-sentient, and neither sentient nor non-sentient.
32. Sanyata Pada (Restrained): Discusses beings from the perspective of being restrained, unrestrained, and partially restrained.
33. Avadhi Pada (Divine Perception): Analyzes divine perception through various aspects like subject matter, form, internal divine perception (abhyantravadhi), external divine perception (bahyavadhi), partial divine perception (deshavadhi), universal divine perception (sarvavadhi), growing divine perception (vruddhi-avadhi), and transient and non-transient divine perception.
34. Pravicharana Pada (Exploration/Contemplation): Describes the contemplation of food, mindful and unmindful consumption, ignorance about sustenance, contemplation of devotion, attainment of right faith, and exploration related to touch, form, sound, and mind, including their relative quantities.
35. Vedana Pada (Feeling/Sensation): Considers beings in relation to feelings such as cold, hot, hot-cold, physical, spatial, temporal, modal, bodily, mental, bodily-mental suffering, happiness, pleasant, unpleasant, pleasant-unpleasant, neither painful nor pleasant, and sensations related to the origin of cause (abhyūṣṇamiki), external causes (aupakramikī), and those that are neither indicated nor indicated (nidā and anidā).
36. Samudghata Pada (Emanation/Projection): Discusses beings in relation to emanations of feeling, passions, death, subtle bodies (vaikriya, taijasa, ahārak), and the emanation of the omniscient (kevali samudghata). It provides a detailed description of kevali samudghata.