Pravachanasara Me Samsar Aur Moksha Ka Swarup

Here is a comprehensive summary in English of the Jain text "Pravachanasara mein Samsar aur Moksha ka Swarup" by Rameshchandra Jain, based on the provided PDF excerpt:

This document, an excerpt from the "Acharyaratna Shri Deshbhushan Ji Maharaj Abhinandan Granth," explores the concepts of Samsara (the cycle of birth and death) and Moksha (liberation) as presented in the Jain text Pravachanasara, primarily authored by Acharya Kundakunda.

Understanding Samsara (The Cycle of Existence):

• Definition: According to Acharya Kundakunda, Samsara is the activity of a substance that is continuously changing or "moving in a circle." No substance remains inherently in one state; even the soul (Jiva), while existing as a soul-substance, is inconstant in its modes (paryayas), manifesting as human and other forms.
• The Cause of Bondage: The connection between the soul and matter (Pudgala) leading to these soul-modes is caused by karma. The soul, tainted by karma, experiences impure states. This impure state is karma itself. Karma (dravyakarma) is the cause of these impure states (bhavakarma).
• Karma and the Soul: The soul is enveloped by subtle and gross pudgala matter, some of which is fit for karma and some not. The pudgala matter suitable for karma, upon coming into contact with the soul's activities, transforms into karma. The soul does not transform pudgala into karma; rather, the suitable pudgala themselves become karma when they come into contact with the soul's volitions. These karmic pudgala then become new bodies for the soul in subsequent lives, leading to repeated transmigration.
• Bondage of the Immaterial Soul with Material Pudgala: Just as the soul, devoid of form and qualities, perceives and knows objects with form and qualities, similarly, the immaterial soul forms a bond with material pudgala.
• Bhavabandha (Psychic Bondage): This occurs when the soul, full of consciousness (upayoga), becomes attached, attracted (raga), or averse (dwesha) to various objects of experience. These states of attachment and aversion are the psychic bondage.
• Dravyabandha (Material Bondage) and its Cause (Bhavabandha): Acharya Amritchandra explains that the soul, by seeing and knowing objects through the lens of delusion (moha), attachment (raga), or aversion (dwesha), becomes stained. This staining (uparaaga) is a psychic condition that leads to the bonding of material karma. Thus, psychic bondage is the cause of material bondage.
• Karma's Infiltration: When the soul, filled with attachment and aversion, undergoes auspicious or inauspicious transformations, karmic dust enters it in the form of knowledge-obscuring karma, etc. This is illustrated with the analogy of rainwater transforming into various plants and insects upon contact with the earth. Similarly, karmic particles entering through various channels transform into different types of karma (e.g., knowledge-obscuring) when the soul is influenced by auspicious/inauspicious states driven by attachment and aversion.
• Comparison with Other Philosophies:
  • Vaisheshika: Karma is a separate substance. Jainism sees karma as an impure state of the soul (bhavakarma) or a special modification of pudgala (dravyakarma), not an independent substance. Vaisheshika places karma only in material substances; Jainism states bhavakarma is in the soul and dravyakarma, in the embodied state, is co-extensive with the soul's parts.
  • Vedanta: Considers motion in Brahman due to Maya as karma, but Maya is considered illusory. Jainism doesn't consider Maya entirely illusory. Vedanta sees Brahman as static and creation as dynamic; Jainism sees all substances as both static and dynamic.
  • Samkhya: Emphasizes Prakriti (matter) as the creator, with Purusha (soul) being inactive. Karma and transformation occur in Prakriti. Jainism, however, sees both the soul and karmic pudgala as causes of Samsara, creating a continuous cycle of interaction. Both the soul and karmic matter are considered to have a partial role as agents. Unlike Samkhya, where the soul is not bound, Jainism states the soul is bound in Samsara, which is logical for liberation. Samkhya considers happiness and suffering as attributes of Prakriti; Jainism says they happen to the soul in the embodied state, with Prakriti/karma as partial causes. Purusha in Samkhya is a enjoyer, not an agent; in Jainism, the soul is both agent and enjoyer. Samkhya attributes knowledge to Prakriti; Jainism attributes it to the soul.

Two Perspectives on Bondage (Nayas):

• Nishchaya Naya (Absolute Truth): The soul's own attachment (raga) is its karma. The soul is the agent, receiver, and abandoner of these attachment states. This describes the pure state of the soul.
• Vyavahara Naya (Conventional Truth): Pudgala-modifications are the soul's karma, manifesting as merit and demerit. The soul is the agent, receiver, and abandoner of these pudgala-modifications. This describes the impure state of the soul.
  • The text emphasizes Nishchaya Naya as more significant because it points to the pure essence of the soul, while Vyavahara Naya indicates impurity.

States of the Soul:

• Auspicious, Inauspicious, and Pure States: When the soul transforms into auspicious or inauspicious states, it becomes so. When it transforms into a pure state, it becomes pure.
  • A soul engaged in pure consciousness attains the bliss of Moksha.
  • A soul engaged in auspicious consciousness attains the bliss of heaven.
  • A soul experiencing inauspicious karmic fruition becomes a lower being (human, animal, or hell-dweller) and suffers immense worldly pain.

The Root of Suffering:

• Buddhism: Identifies thirst (trishna) as the cause of suffering. Craving for pleasure and happiness leads to repeated births.
• Jainism (Kundakunda): Identifies attachment and aversion (raga-dwesha), essentially thirst or craving, as the root cause of suffering. A wise person who understands the nature of substances does not develop attachment or aversion, leading to the cessation of suffering. The desire for sensory pleasures fuels thirst.
• Impact of Desire: Sensory pleasures, though seemingly pleasant, arise from thirst. Attachment to these creates a cycle of transmigration, old age, and death. In Jainism, the cause of physical and sensory existence is the soul's material and psychic karma, with thirst (or raga, dwesha, moha) being the root of psychic karma. Even aspiring for good actions without overcoming delusion (moha) prevents one from realizing the pure soul.

The Soul's Transformation:

• If the soul did not inherently transform into auspicious or inauspicious states, then Samsara would not exist. The text addresses the argument that the absence of Samsara is an advantage for Samkhyas, but argues that the absence of Samsara is Moksha, and this Moksha is not observed for embodied souls.

The Qualified for Pure Consciousness (Shuddhopayoga):

• Those who have thoroughly understood scriptures and substances, are engaged in self-control and austerity, are free from intense attachment and aversion (vitaraaga), and view pleasure and pain equally, are the ones who can attain pure consciousness.

The State of the Purely Conscious Soul:

• A soul in pure consciousness is free from the dust of knowledge-obscuring, perception-obscuring, obstructive, and deluding karmas. It attains the nature of knowable objects and becomes omniscient and self-existent, adored by the lords of all worlds.
• Qualities of Bliss from Pure Consciousness: This bliss is:
  • Atishaya (Exalted): Unprecedented, wonderful joy, never experienced before.
  • Atmotpanna (Self-generated): Arises from the soul itself.
  • Vishayaateet (Beyond Objects): Independent of external objects.
  • Anupam (Incomparable): Unique and matchless.
  • Anant (Infinite): Never-ending.
  • Avichchhinn (Uninterrupted): Continuous without breaks.
  • This bliss is supremely desirable.

The Omniscient Soul (Kevalgyani):

• An omniscient soul knows all substances but does not transform into their nature, does not grasp them, and does not arise in their form. Therefore, it is described as "avadhaka" (unhindered).
• Analogy to Arhats and Buddhist Doctrine: While Buddhism states pain causes thirst, and Arhats experience pain, they do not develop thirst due to the absence of ignorance. Similarly, in Jainism, Arhats may experience "vedaniya" karma (feelings), but due to the absence of delusion (moha) and ignorance (avidya), this karma cannot yield fruit.

Sensory Pleasure is Suffering:

• The Nature of Sensory Experience: Those who are attached to sensual objects inherently experience suffering. If there were no inherent suffering, there would be no engagement with sensual objects.
• Buddhist Perspective: Desire for pleasant sensory experiences strengthens one's bonds and increases thirst.
• Kundakunda's View: Both auspicious and inauspicious consciousness lead to accumulation (of karma). Their absence stops accumulation.
• Soul, Not Body, Experiences Pleasure/Pain: The soul, by transforming according to its pure nature, experiences pleasure when encountering desired objects through the senses. The body does not cause this pleasure. Even in heaven, the body does not provide pleasure; the soul itself, influenced by objects, becomes happy or unhappy. If the soul itself can transform into happiness, external objects have no power.
• Sensory Pleasure is Suffering (Detailed):
  • Perishability and Dependence: Sensory pleasure is dependent on others, subject to interruption, causes bondage, and is unequal.
  • Interruption: It is interrupted by opposing karmas (like inauspicious karma). True bliss is uninterrupted.
  • Cause of Bondage: It leads to the accumulation of karma for future suffering due to dwelling on desired and undesired objects. True bliss is not a cause of bondage.
  • Inequality: It lacks ultimate peace and fluctuates. True bliss is completely satisfying and unchanging.
  • Therefore, all worldly pleasures derived from senses are ultimately suffering.

Means to Self-Knowledge:

• Knowing the Arhat in terms of substance, attributes, and modes leads to knowing the soul and eradicating delusion.
• One who has removed delusion and attained the true nature of the soul, if they abandon attachment and aversion, will attain the pure soul.

Why Attachment, Aversion, and Delusion Must Be Eradicated:

• These states cause diverse bondages for the soul and must be completely destroyed.
• Samkhya's Gunas: Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas in Samkhya correspond to pleasure, pain, and delusion in Jainism. Kundakunda states that these are absent in the right-believer (samyagdrashthi).
• Right Belief: A right-believer does not have attachment, aversion, or delusion, as their absence is fundamental to right belief. Without these, the influx of external karmic matter cannot bind the soul, as attachment and aversion are the primary reasons for this binding. Therefore, the enlightened one does not experience bondage.
• Causes of Delusion: Misconception of substances, compassion for beings (humans and animals), and association with sensual objects are signs of delusion.
  • Mishandling of Substances: Incorrect perception of pure soul-like substances.
  • Compassion: A contrary inclination to the supreme indifference of equanimity.
  • Association with Objects: Strong attachment to pleasant and unpleasant objects by those who are externally focused and lack the experience of true bliss.
• These are signs of "darshana moha" (delusion regarding truth). "Charitra moha" (delusion regarding conduct) is seen in the forms of attachment and aversion.

Ways to Eradicate Delusion:

1. Study of Jin-Shastra (Jain Scriptures): Studying scriptures that reveal substances through direct and inferred knowledge will invariably destroy delusion. The study of scriptures authored by omniscient, passion-free beings reveals the eternal soul. This scriptural knowledge, through continued practice, leads to direct realization of the soul, free from attachment and aversion, often through mental direct perception or inference. Therefore, seekers of liberation must practice studying scriptures. Those who destroy delusion, attachment, and aversion through Jinendra's teachings are freed from all suffering in a short time.
2. Discrimination between Self and Other: To achieve freedom from delusion, one must discriminate between the self and the other within substances through virtues, as taught by the Jain scriptures.

Attainment of Nirvana (Liberation):

• The Pravachanasara begins with salutations to the Pancha Paramashthis (five supreme beings) and describes the attainment of pure perception-knowledge, leading to equanimity (samya-bhava), and ultimately liberation.
• Acharya Jayasen and Amritchandra interpret "samya" as "charitra" (conduct). Amritchandra further divides it into "saraga" (with passion) and "vitaraaga" (without passion) charitra, emphasizing the latter as the primary goal.
• A soul with right belief and some remaining passions (kashayas) engages in "saraga charitra," which leads to merit-binding. However, overcoming this and attaining "vitaraaga charitra" (conduct devoid of all passions and afflictions) leads to liberation.
• Acharya Kundakunda equates Dharma (righteousness), Charitra (conduct), and Samya (equanimity) as having the same meaning. The soul is identified with the state it transforms into. Thus, a soul engaged in Dharma is understood as Dharma. Liberation is attained through this Dharma (conduct or equanimity).

In essence, the text emphasizes that Samsara is a consequence of the soul's entanglement with karmic matter, driven by passions like attachment, aversion, and delusion. True happiness and liberation (Moksha) are achieved by understanding the true nature of the self, eradicating these passions through scriptural study and proper conduct, and attaining a state of pure, unwavering consciousness.