One of the oldest
religions in the world
is Jainism,
or traditionally known
as Jain Dharma.
Originating
from ancient India,
this philosophy centers
around concepts
such as right perception,
right knowledge
and right conduct
in the attainment
of moksha, or realization
of the soul’s true nature.
The concept of ahimsa,
or non-violence,
is of equally great
importance.
Thus, with compassion
for all life,
practitioners of Jainism
follow a pure vegetarian
(vegan) diet.
Jains follow
the ancient wisdom
of the 24 Tirthakaras,
or prophets, whose
teachings comprise
the Agam sutras, the
religion’s holy scriptures.
Lord Mahavira,
who is considered
to be the last Tirthakara,
was born around
5-6th century BCE,
as a prince of the ancient
kingdom of Vaishali.
He later forsook
his royal status to pursue
the spiritual path.
After attaining keval jnan,
or all-knowing
intuitive vision, he spent
the rest of his life
giving discourses
on spiritual truths, which
form the present-day
tenets of Jainism.
We present to you today
excerpts of
Uttarâdhyayan:
Lectures 3-6
from the second book of
Jainism’s Akaranga Sutra.
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THIRD LECTURE:
THE FOUR REQUISITES
Four things
of paramount value are
difficult to obtain here
by a living being:
human birth,
instruction in the Law,
belief in it, and
energy in self-control.
I. The universe is peopled
by manifold creatures,
who are, in this Samsara
(migration and
transmigration),
born in different families
and castes
for having done
various actions.
Sometimes they go to
the world of the gods,
sometimes to the hells,
sometimes
they become Asuras
(supernatural beings)
in accordance with
their actions.
Sometimes they become
Kshattriyas (members
of the second highest
of the four castes of
traditional Indian society),
or Kandâlas
(the lowest of men) and
Bukkasas (lowest of men),
or worms and moths,
or insects
called Kunthu and ants.
Thus living beings
of sinful actions, who
are born again and again
in ever-recurring births,
are not disgusted with
the Samsara (migration
and transmigration),
but they are like warriors
(never tired of
the battle of life).
Living beings bewildered
through the influence
of their actions,
distressed and suffering
pains, undergo misery
in non-human births.
But by the cessation
of Karman (retribution),
perchance, living beings
will reach in due time
a pure state
and be born as men.
II. And though they be
born with a human body,
it will be difficult
for them to hear the Law,
having heard which
they will do penances,
fight their passions
and abstain from
killing living beings.
III. And though, by chance,
they may hear the Law,
it will be difficult
for them to believe in it;
many who are shown
the right way, stray from it.
IV. And though
they have heard the Law
and believe in it,
it is difficult for them
to fulfill it strenuously;
many who approve of
the religion, do not adopt it.
Having been born as a man,
having heard the Law,
believing in it, and
fulfilling it strenuously,
an ascetic should
restrain himself and
shake off sinfulness.
The pious obtain purity,
and the pure stand firmly
in the Law:
the soul afterwards
reaches the highest
Nirvâna (paradise).
Leave off the causes of sin,
acquire fame
through patience!
A man who acts up to this
will rise to
the upper regions
after having left
this body of clay.
The Yakshas
(nature-spirits) who are
gifted with various virtues,
live in the heavenly
regions, situated one
above the other,
shining forth like
the great luminaries,
and hoping
never to descend thence.
Intent on
enjoying divine pleasures
and changing their form
at will, they live in
the upper Kalpa heavens
many centuries
of former years.
The Yakshas
(nature-spirits),
having remained there
according to their merit,
descend thence at
the expiration of their life
and are born as men.
Men are of ten kinds.
Fields and houses, gold,
and servants:
where these four goods,
the causes of pleasure,
are present, in such families
he is born.
He will have friends
and relations,
be of good family,
of fine complexion,
healthy, wise, noble,
famous, and powerful.
After having enjoyed,
at their proper time,
the unrivalled pleasures
of human life,
he will obtain
true knowledge by
his pure religious merit
acquired in a former life.
Perceiving
that the four requisites
are difficult to obtain,
he will apply himself
to self-control,
and when by penances
he has shaken off
the remnant of
Karman (retribution),
he will become an eternal
Siddha (spiritual being).
Thus I say.
FOURTH LECTURE:
IMPURITY
You cannot
prolong your life,
therefore be not careless;
you are past help
when old age approaches.
Consider this:
what protection
will careless people get,
who kill living beings and
do not exert themselves?
Men who adhering to
wrong principles
acquire wealth
by evil deeds, will lose it,
falling into the snares
of their passions
and being held captive
by their hatred.
People in this life
and the next
cannot escape the effect
of their own actions.
If a man living
in the Samsâra (migration
and transmigration)
does an action for
the sake of somebody else,
or one by which
he himself also profits,
then, at the time of reaping
the fruit of his actions,
his relations will not act
as true relations (i.e.
will not come to his help).
Wealth will not protect
a careless man
in this world and the next.
Though he had seen
the right way,
he does not see it,
even as one in the dark
whose lamp
has suddenly been put out.
Though others sleep,
be thou awake!
Like a wise man,
trust nobody, but
be always on the alert;
for dangerous is the time
and weak the body.
Be always watchful
like a Bhârunda bird!
A monk should
step carefully in his walk
(i.e. in his life),
supposing everything
to be a snare for him.
First, he must bestow care
on his life
till he wins the stake
(viz. enlightenment),
and afterwards
he should despise it,
annihilating his sins.
By conquering his will,
a monk reaches liberation.
Be watchful
in your young years;
for thereby a monk
quickly obtains liberation.
“If he does not get victory
over his will early,
he will get it afterwards,”
such reasoning
presupposes the eternity
of human life.
But such a man despairs
when his life draws
to its close,
and the dissolution
of his body approaches.
One cannot quickly
arrive at discernment;
therefore one should
exert one's self,
abstain from pleasures,
understand the world,
be impartial like a sage,
and guard one's self:
thus, never be careless.
A Sramana
(wandering monk) who
again and again suppresses
the effects of delusion,
and controls himself,
will be affected
in a rough way
by external things;
but a monk should not
hate them in his mind.
External things
weaken the intellect
and allure many;
therefore keep them out
of your mind.
Keep off delusion,
remove pride,
do not practice deceit,
leave off greed.
Desire virtues
till the end of your life.
Thus I say.
FIFTH LECTURE:
DEATH AGAINST
ONE'S WILL
In this ocean of life with
its currents (viz. births)
difficult to cross,
one man has reached
the opposite shore;
one wise man
has given an answer
to the following question.
These two ways of life
ending with death
have been declared:
death with one's will, and
death against one's will.
Death against one's will
is that of ignorant men,
and it happens
to the same individual
many times.
Death with one's will
is that of wise men,
and at best it happens
but once.
Mahâvîra has thus
described the first kind
in which an ignorant man,
being attached to pleasures,
does very cruel actions.
A man attached to
pleasures and amusements
will be caught
in the trap of deceit.
He thinks: “I never saw
the next world,
but I have seen
with my own eyes
the pleasures of this life.”
“The pleasures of this life
are, as it were, in your hand,
but the future ones
are uncertain.
Who knows whether
there is a next world
or not?”
The fool boasts:
“I shall have the company
of most men.”
But by his love of
pleasures and amusements
he will come to grief.
Then he begins to act
cruelly against movable
and immovable beings,
and he kills living beings
with a purpose or without.
An ignorant man kills,
lies, deceives,
calumniates, dissembles,
drinks liquor,
and eats meat,
thinking that this is
the right thing to do.
Overbearing in acts
and words, desirous
for wealth and women,
he accumulates sins
in two ways.
Then he suffers ill and
is attacked by disease;
and he is in dread of
the next world when
he reflects on his deeds.
I have heard of
the places in hell,
and of the destination
of the sinner, where the
fools who do cruel deeds
will suffer violently.
Then going to the place
where he is to be born again
according to his deeds,
he feels remorse,
as I have heard from
my teacher.
As a charioteer, who
against his better judgment
leaves the smooth
highway and
gets on a rugged road,
repents when
the axle breaks;
so the fool, who
transgresses the Law and
embraces unrighteousness,
repents in the hour
of death, like the charioteer
over the broken axle.
Then when death
comes at last,
the fool trembles in fear;
he dies the
“death against one's will,”
having lost his chance
like a gambler
vanquished by Kali
(goddess of strength).
Thus has been explained
the fools’
“death against one's will”;
now hear from me
the wise men's
“death with one's will!”
Full of peace
and without injury
to any one is,
as I have heard from
my teachers,
the death of the virtuous
who control themselves
and subdue their senses.
Such a death does not fall
to the lot of every monk,
nor of every householder;
for the morality
of householders
is of various character,
and that of monks is not
always good throughout.
Some householders are
superior to some monks
in self-control;
but the saints are superior
to all householders
in self-control.
Nakedness, twisted hair,
baldness –
these outward tokens will
not save a sinful ascetic.
A sinner, though
he be a mendicant friar,
will not escape hell;
but a pious man, whether
monk or householder,
ascends to Heaven.
A faithful man should
practice the rules of
conduct for householders;
he should never neglect
the Pôsaha fast
in both fortnights,
not even for a single night.
When under
such discipline
he lives piously
even as a householder,
he will, on quitting
flesh and bones,
share the world of the
Yakshas (nature-spirits).
Now a restrained monk
will become one of the two:
either one
free from all misery
or a god of great power.
To the highest regions,
in due order, to those
where there is no delusion,
and to those
which are full of light,
where the glorious gods
dwell – who have
long life, great power,
great luster, who can
change their shape at will,
who are beautiful
as on their first day,
and have the brilliancy
of many suns –
to such places go those
who are trained in
self-control and penance,
monks or householders,
who have obtained liberation
by absence of passion.
Having heard this
from the venerable men
who control themselves
and subdue their senses,
the virtuous and the learned
do not tremble
in the hour of death.
A wise man
having weighed
both kinds of death
and chosen the better one
taught in
the Law of Compassion,
will become calm
through patience,
with an undisturbed mind
at the time of death.
When the right time
to prepare for death
has arrived,
a faithful monk should,
in the presence
of his teacher,
suppress all emotions
of fear or joy and wait for
the dissolution of his body.
When the time
for quitting the body
has come, a sage dies the
“death with one's will,”
according to one of
the three methods.
Thus I say.
SIXTH LECTURE:
THE FALSE ASCETIC
All men who are ignorant
of the Truth
are subject to pain;
in the endless Samsara
(migration and
transmigration)
they suffer in many ways.
Therefore a wise man,
who considers well
the ways that lead to
bondage and birth,
should himself search for
the truth, and be kind
towards all creatures.
“Mother, father,
daughter-in-law,
brother, wife, and sons
will not be able to help me,
when I suffer
for my own deeds.”
This truth should
be taken to heart
by a man of pure faith;
he should therefore
cut off greed and love,
and not hanker after
his former connections.
Cows and horses,
jewels and earrings,
cattle, slaves and servants:
all these possessions
you must give up
in order to obtain
the power of changing
your form at will.
Everything that
happens to somebody,
affects him personally;
therefore, knowing
the creatures' love
of their own self,
do not deprive them
of their life, but
cease from endangering
and fighting with them.
Seeing that
to accept presents
leads to hell,
one should not accept
even a blade of grass;
only to preserve one's life
one should eat the food
that is put in
one's own alms-bowl.
Here some are of opinion
that they will be
delivered from all misery
by merely attending
the teacher, without
abstaining from sins.
Acknowledging the truth
about bondage
and liberation,
but talking only,
not acting in accordance
with these tenets,
they seek comfort
for themselves
in mighty words.
Clever talking
will not work salvation;
how should philosophical
instruction do it?
Fools, though
sinking lower and lower
through their sins,
believe themselves
to be wise men.
They are going a long way
in the endless Samsara
(migration and
transmigration); therefore,
looking out carefully
one should
wander about carefully.
Choosing what is beyond
and above this world,
(viz. liberation),
one should never desire
worldly objects, but
sustain one's body only to
be able to annihilate one's
Karman (retribution).
Those will reap pains
who, in thoughts, words,
or acts, are attached
to their body, to colors,
and to forms.
Recognizing the cause
of Karman (retribution),
one should wander about
waiting for one's death;
knowing the permitted
quantity of food and drink,
one should eat such food
as has been prepared
by the householders for
their own consumption.
An ascetic should not lay
by any store, not even
so little as the grease
(sticking to his alms-bowl);
but as a bird
with its plumage,
so he with his alms-bowl
should wander about
without desires.
Receiving alms in
a manner to avoid faults,
and controlling one's self,
one should wander about
in a village, etc.,
without a fixed residence;
careful among
the careless one
should beg one's food.
Thus has spoken
the Arhat Gñâtriputra,
the venerable native of
Vaisâlî, who possesses
the highest knowledge
and who possesses
the highest faith,
who possesses,
at the same time,
the highest knowledge
and the highest faith.
Thus I say.