Lecture 1, Lesson 1

[First lecture (uddesaya, uddeśaka): Knowledge of the weapon]

[Note: Ajjhayaṇa, adhyayana. The first lecture is called sattha-pariṇṇā (śastra-parijñā),'knowledge of the weapon.' Weapons are divided into material weapon and weapon consisting in a state (bhāva). The latter is explained to be non-control (asaṃyama) or the wrong use of mind, speech, and body. Knowledge (parijñā) is twofold: comprehension and renunciation. The subject of the first lecture is, therefore, the comprehension and renunciation of everything that hurts other beings.]

O long-lived (Jambūsvāmin^[1])! I (Sudharman) have heard the following discourse from the venerable (Mahāvīra): (1)

Here many do not remember whether they have descended in an eastern direction (when they were born in this world), or in a southern, or in a western, or in a northern direction, or in the direction from above, or in the direction from below, or in a direction intermediate (between the cardinal points), or in a direction intermediate between these (and the cardinal points). (2) Similarly, some do not know whether their soul is born again and again or not; nor what they were formerly, nor what they will become after having died and left this world. (3) Now this is what one should know, either by one’s own knowledge or through the instruction of the highest (i.e. a Tīrthakara), or having heard it from others: that he descended in an eastern direction, or in any other direction (particularised above). Similarly, some know that their soul is born again and again, that it arrives in this or that direction, whatever direction that may be. (4) He believes in soul^[2], believes in the world^[3], believes in reward^[4], believes in action (acknowledged to be our own doing in such judgments as these): ‘I did it;’ ‘I shall cause another to do it;’ ‘I shall allow another to do it^[5].’ In the world, these are all the causes of sin^[6], which must be comprehended and renounced. (5) A man that does not comprehend and renounce the causes of sin, descends in a cardinal or intermediate direction, wanders to all cardinal or intermediate directions, is born again and again in manifold births, experiences all painful feelings. (6) About this the Revered One has taught the truth (comprehension and renunciation). For the sake of the splendour, honour, and glory of this life, for the sake of birth, death, and final liberation, for the removal of pain, all these causes of sin are at work, which are to be comprehended and renounced in this world. He who, in the world, comprehends and renounces these causes of sin, is called a reward-knowing sage (muṇi). Thus I say^[7]. (7)

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Jambūsvāmin was the disciple of Sudharman, one of the eleven chief disciples (gaṇadhara) of Mahāvira.

[2]:

I.e. in a permanent soul, different from the body. This is said against the Cārvākas.

[3]:

I.e. the plurality of souls, not in one all-soul, as the Vedāntins.

[4]:

Kamma (karma) is that which darkens our intellect, &c. Its result is the suffering condition of men, its cause is action (kiriyā, kriyā).

[5]:

The different tenses employed in these sentences imply, according to the commentators, the acknowledgment of the reality of time, as past, present, future.

[6]:

Kamma-samāraṃbha. Kamma has been explained above. Samāraṃbha, a special action (kriyā), is the engaging in something blamable (sāvadyānuṣṭhāna).

[7]:

These words (tti bemi) stand at the end of every lesson. The commentators supply them also for the beginning of each lesson.