Sutrakritanga (English translation)

by Hermann Jacobi | 1895 | 52,880 words | ISBN-10: 8120801466 | ISBN-13: 9788120801462

The English translation of the Sutrakritanga, which represents the second Agama of the 12 Angas in Shevatambara Jainism. It is traditionally dated to the 4th-century BCE and consists of two parts (verse and prose) explaining various doctrinal aspects of Jainism. Alternative titles: Sūtrakṛtāṅga (सूत्रकृताङ्ग), Sūtrakṛta-aṅga (सूत्रकृत-अङ्ग), Prakr...

Lecture 12: The Creed

[Note: Samosaraṇa = Samavasaraṇa. This word and the verb samosarai are commonly used when Mahāvīra preaches to a meeting (melāpaka) gathered round him.]

There are four (heretical) creeds[1] which the disputants severally uphold: 1. the Kriyāvāda, 2. the Akriyāvāda, 3. the Vinayavāda, and 4. the Ajñānavāda. (1)

The agnostics[2], though they (pretend to) be clever, reason incoherently, and do not get beyond the confusion of their ideas. Ignorant (teachers) speak to ignorant (pupils), and without reflection they speak untruth. (2)

Believing truth to be untruth, and calling a bad man good, the various upholders of Vinaya, asked about it, explain their tenet[3]. (3)

Without perceiving the truth they speak thus: this object (viz. Mokṣa) is realised by us thus (viz. by Vinaya). The Akriyāvādins who deny Karman[4], do not admit that the action (of the soul is transmitted to) the future moments[5]. (4)

They become involved in contradiction in their own assertions; they falter in their speech and are unable to repeat what is said to them[6]. This (their opinion) has a valiant counter-opinion, this (our opinion) has no valiant counter-opinion; and Karman has six sources[7]. (5)

The Akriyāvādins who do not understand the truth, bring forward various opinions; many men believing in them will whirl round in the endless Circle of Births. (6)

‘There rises no sun, nor does it set; there waxes no moon, nor does it wane; there are no rivers running, nor any winds blowing; the whole world is ascertained to be unreal[8].’ (7)

As a blind man, though he have a light, does not see colours, &c., because he is deprived of his eye(sight), so the Akriyāvādin, having a perverted intellect, does not recognise the action (of the soul) though it does exist. (8)

Many men in this world who have studied astrology, the art of interpreting dreams, divination from diagrams, augury, divination from bodily marks, and from portents, and the eight branches (of divination from omens), know the future[9]. (9)

(The opponents say that) some forecasts are true, and the prophecies of others prove wrong; therefore they do not study those sciences, but they profess to know the world, fools though they be[10]. (10)

The (Kriyāvādins) Śramaṇas and Brāhmaṇas understanding the world (according to their lights), speak thus: misery is produced by one’s own works, not by those of somebody else (viz. fate, creator, &c.)[11]. But right knowledge and conduct lead to liberation. (11) The (Tīrthakaras), being (as it were) the eyes of the world and its leaders, teach the path which is salutary to men; they have declared that the world is eternal inasmuch as creatures are (for ever) living in it, O ye men! (12)

The Rākṣasas and the dwellers in Yama’s world, the troops[12] of Asuras and Gandharvas, and the spirits that walk the air, and individual beings[13]: they will all be born again and again. (13)

(The Saṃsāra) which is compared to the boundless flood of water, know it to be impassable and of very long duration on account of repeated births[14]. Men therein, seduced by their senses and by women, are born again and again both (as movable and immovable beings). (14)

The sinners cannot annihilate their works by new works; the pious annihilate their works by abstention from works; the wise and happy men who got rid of the effects of greed, do not commit sins. (15)

They know the past, present, and future ways of the world; they are leaders of other men, but follow no leader; they are awakened, and put an end to mundane existence. (16)

Averse to injury of living beings, they do not act, nor cause others to act. Always restraining themselves, those pious men practise control, and some become heroes through their knowledge. (17) He regards small beings and large beings, the whole world as equal to himself; he comprehends the immense world, and being awakened he controls himself among the careless. (18)

Those who have learned (the truth) by themselves or from others, are able (to save) themselves and others. One should always honour a man, who is like a light and makes manifest the Law after having well considered it. (19)

He who knows himself and the world; who knows where (the creatures) go, and whence they will not return; who knows what is eternal, and what is transient; birth and death, and the future existences of men; (20)

He who knows the tortures of beings below (i.e. in hell); who knows the influx of sin and its stoppage[15]; who knows misery and its annihilation,--he is entitled to expound the Kriyāvāda[16], (21)

Being not attached to sounds and colours, indifferent to tastes and smells, not desiring life nor death, guarded by control, and exempt from the Circle (of Births). (22)

Thus I say.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Compare Uttarādhyayana XVIII, 23, above p. 83, note 2.

[2]:

Annāṇiyā = ajñānikās, the followers of the fourth sect.

[3]:

Viz. that Mokṣa is arrived at through Vinaya, discipline.

[4]:

Lavāvasaṅkī. Lava is explained by karman, and avasaṅkī by apasartuṃśīlaṃ yeṣāṃ te.

[5]:

The meaning is that as everything has but a momentary existence, there is no connection between the thing as it is now, and as it will be in the next moment. This is a doctrine of the Bauddhas. But the Sāṅkhyas are also reckoned among the Akriyāvādins, because, according to them, the ātman does not act.

[6]:

Śīlāṅka in commenting upon this passage has to say a good deal about the Bauddhas. It is perhaps of interest that he mentions their 500 Jātakas, and not thirty-four which is the recognised number of Gātakas according to the Northern Buddhist. How Śīlāṅka came to a knowledge of the numbers of Jātakas accepted by the Southern Buddhists, I cannot tell.

[7]:

Viz. the six Āsravas.

[8]:

This is the opinion of the Śūnyavādins, who are considered to belong to the Akriyāvādins, because they deny all actions, even such as are perceived by everybody (Śīlāṅka).

[9]:

This would be impossible if the whole world was unreal.

[10]:

A various reading, commented upon by the scholiasts, runs thus: āhaṃsu vijjāpalimokkham eva, they say 'that one must give up science.'

[11]:

The Kriyāvādins contend, according to Śīlāṅka, that works alone, by themselves, without knowledge, lead to Mokṣa.

[12]:

Kāya. The commentators explain this word as denoting the earth-bodies, &c., but from the context it will be seen that it refers to Asuras and Gandharvas, and must be translated by 'troops.'

[13]:

Puḍho siyā = pṛthak śritāḥ; according to Śīlāṅka, pṛthivyāśritāḥ. This expression is generally used to denote the lower order of beings.

[14]:

To render bhavagahana.

[16]:

It is evident that the Jainas considered themselves Kriyāvādins. I had overlooked this passage when penning the note on p. 83.

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