Book2

Acharya Kundkund

 Translated by A.N. Upadhye

Book II

 *1. Having saluted and having constantly concentrated my mind on him, I shall discourse in short upon the knowledge  consisting in the ascertainment of the highest objectivity.

93. The object of knowledge is made up of substances, which are said to be characterised by qualities, and with which,  moreover, are (associated) the modifications; those, who are deluded by modifications, are false believers.
94. Those beings, that are attached to modifications, are pointed out as the followers of the foreign creed (para-samayika); and  those who establish themselves in the nature of the self, are to be known as the followers of one’s own creed.
95. That is called a substance which is endowed with qualities and accompanied by modifications and which is coupled with  origination, destruction and permanence without leaving its nature (of existence).
96. The nature of the substance is existence accompanied by qualities by its variegated modifications and by origination, destruction and permanence for all the time.
97. Here, amongst various characteristics, existence in described as one all-comprising characteristic by the great Jina, when (he was) clearly propounding the (religious) creed.
98. The Jinas have truly declared that the substance is naturally (and essentially) proved to be existential; and it is as well proved from the scriptures; he, who does not accept it, is a false believer.
99. That existing entity established in its nature is the substance; the development of the substance with reference to qualities and modes (artha) is (also) its nature coupled with permanence, origination and destruction.
100. There can be no origination without destruction, nor there is destruction without origination; origination and destruction are not possible in the absence of the permanent substantiality.
101. Origination, permanence and destruction take place in modifications; modifications are (possible) necessarily in a substance, therefore the substance forms the base of all of them.
102. A substance, in fact, is intimately united with the (three) conditions signified by the terms: origination, permanence and destruction at one and the same moment; therefore, really speaking, the substance is (the substratum of) all the three.
103. In a substance some modification originates and some other passes away; but the substantiality neither originates nor is destroyed.
104. The substance, which is not different from its (initial) existence, develops of its own accord some other quality leaving the one; therefore, modifications in qualities are further called the substance.
105. If the substance is not an existing entity, it must be either non-existing or again something else than a substance; in either case how can it be a substance? Therefore, the substance is self-existent.
106. It is the dictum of Mahavira and separateness (prathaktva) consists in having separated space-points; non-identity (anyatva) is the absence of identity; (between satta or existence and dravya or substance) there is no identity (na tadbhavam  perhaps the same as aradbhavah, non-identity), then how can those two be one?
107. Substance is existing, quality is existing and modification is existing: so is the detailed scope of existence; the negation of any one of them, in fact, is that negation termed as non-identity.
108. Really speaking what is substance is not quality, nor what is quality is substance; this is a case of non-identity and not of absolute negation: so it is pointed out.
109. That condition, which in fact, forms the nature of the substance, is quality which is not different from its initial existence; that existing entity established in its nature is the substance: this is the doctrine of the Jina.
110. There is nothing as quality nor as a modification in the absence of a substance; that substantiality is (a condition) of positive existence; therefore the substance is existence itself.
111. In this manner, the substance forever retains its position, in its own nature, as endowed with positive and negative  conditions according as it is looked at from the substantial and the modificational viewpoints.
112. When the soul (in its course) is or will be born as a man, god or any one else, does it leave its substantiality? If it does not leave, how is it different (in different births)?
113. A man (so long he has a human body) is not a god; nor is a god a man or a liberated being; if it is not so possible, how can their mutual non-difference be established?
114. All substances are non-different from the substantial viewpoint, but again they are different from the modificational viewpoint, because of the individual modification pervading it for the time being. 115. According to some modification or the  other it is stated that a substance exists, does not exist, is indescribable, is both or otherwise.
115. There is no modification (such as human or divine etc.) as such which is permanent; nor there is any activity (of mundane beings) which is not the outcome of their nature. Even if the highest Dharma is without fruit, the activity (of mundane beings) is not without a fruit.
116. The Karma of the Nama type (i.e., the Nama-Karma which determines the various physical characteristics of the embodied beings) overcomes the nature of the soul with its nature, makes him a man, a sub-human being, a denizen of hell or a god.
117. Men, denizens of hell, sub-human beings and gods who are, in fact, shaped by (their own) Nama-karma, have not realized their nature (of knowledge and bliss), developing as they are their Karmas.
118. In this world, in which modifications originate and pass away at every moment, nothing is absolutely produced or destroyed; what is production of one modification is the destruction of another; and thus origination and destruction are  different.
119. In this world, therefore, there is nothing as such absolutely established in its nature; after all mundane existence is (only) an activity of the soul-substance which is moving (in four grades of existence).
120. The soul tainted with Karma attains a condition mixed with Karma; thence Karma clings; therefore Karma is a condition (developed by passions etc.)
121. The development of the soul is soul itself, and this activity (of development) pervades the soul; this activity is known   as  Karma, and hence the soul is not the (direct) agent of (material) Karmas.
122. The soul develops into (or with) sentiency which, in turn, is said to be of three kinds, say with regard to knowledge, Karma and the fruit of Karma.
123. Knowledge is the comprehension of the objectivity (exactly as it is); whatever is done by the soul is Karma, which is of many kinds; the fruit of Karma is either happiness or misery.
124. The nature of the soul is development: this development is with reference to knowledge, Karma and the fruit; therefore, it  should be understood that knowledge, Karma and the fruit constitute the soul.
125. When the Sramana is convinced that the soul itself is the agent, means, action, and the fruit, and if he does not develop anything (else as passions etc.), he realizes the pure self.
126. Substance comprises Jiva, the sentient principle and Ajiva the non-sentient principle; Jiva is constituted of sentiency and  manifestation of consciousness; Ajiva is insentient, and the foremost of this class is matter.
127. That space which is accompanied by matter and soul, which is rich with Kala (or time) and the two magnitudes (i.e., astikayas) of Dharma and Adharma (i.e., the principles of motion and rest) and which is eternal, is called Loka or the physical world.
128. Of this physical world constituted of matter and souls, there take place a formation consisting of origination, permanence and destruction collectively or visually.
129. The characteristics by which the sentient and non-sentient substances recognised are known as the special qualities called murta and amurta, concrete non-concrete.
130. The qualities which are perceived by senses, which characterise the metal substances and which are manifold are murta or  concrete qualities; the qualities non-concrete substances are to be known as amurta or non-concrete.
131. Colour, taste, smell and touch are found in matter from the finer molecule the gross earth; and sound is material and of various kinds.

133-134. The peculiar property of Akasa is to give room; of the Dharma-substance, to be a cause of movement; of Adharma, to be a cause of stationariness; Kala, to mark the continuity; of soul, the manifestation of consciousness; these to be known, in short, the peculiar characteristics of non-concrete substances.

135. The souls, material bodies, principles of motion and rest and space: all possess innumerable space-points; but time has no space-points.

*2. These five substances, leaving aside the time, are called astikayas or magnitudes; the word kaya signifies the collection of space-points.

136. The sky or space pervades Loka and Aloka; Loka is occupied by the principles of motion and rest, by time which rests with the other two (viz., soul and matter) and by soul and matter.
137. Just as there are points of space, so are there of the remaining (substances); a primary atom is without space-points, because (being an unit) it gives rise to the (measure of) space-point.
138. The moment of time is without space-points; it is equal to the time required by that unit so substance measure by one Pradesa to traverse one spacepoint of the sky-substance.
139. That much duration required for crossing from one to the other spatial point is (known as) Samaya, instant or moment; the objective entity before and after is time; samaya is lible to origination and destrcution.
140. That much portion of the space occupied by one atom is called the space-point and it is capable of giving room to the atoms of all (substances).
141. All substances (excepting time) have one, two, many, innumerable or even infinite space-points, while time has only one space-point viz., samaya, instant or moment.
142. That samaya or instant, which has origination and destruction at one and the same moment, is (still) a samaya established in its nature.
143. This is the essential nature of kalanu (the unit of time), all the while, that it undergoes what are called origination, permanence and destruction at one and the same moment.
144. That, which has not many space-points, nor even one space-point in order that it might be known (?), should be known as  void, which is something other than existence.
145. The physical world is stable, eternal and (filled) complete with entities endowed with space-points; he, who knows it, is the soul endowed with four life essentials.
146. Life-essentials of Jivas or souls are senses, bala (i.e., the channels of activities), duration of life and respiration.

*3. Life-essentials (in details) are ten: five senses, three channels of activity, viz., of mind, speech and body, respiration and the duration of life.

147. That which formerly lived, lives now and will live in future with the four life-essentials is the Jiva, the sentient principle; these life-essentials, moreover, are fashioned by material substances.
148. The soul endowed with life-essentials, bound by infatuatory and other Karmas, and enjoying the fruit of Karmas, is bound by other additional Karmas.
149. If the Jiva, through delusion and hatred, causes harm to the life-essentials again and again.
150. The soul tainted with Karma, so long as it does not give up attachment towards external objects the foremost of which is the body, possesses other life essentials again and again.
151. He, who has conquered his senses etc. and meditates the pure manifestation of consciousness of his self, will not be tainted by Karmas; how then can the life-essentials follow him?
152. The transformation of one condition into another, in the case of the soul (when coming into contact with matter) whose  existential nature is (already) determined, is the modification with its varieties of figuration etc.
153. Human, hellish, sub-human and divine modifications of the soul are mutually different with regard to the figuration (of  the body) etc., because of the operation of Nama-karman.
154. The nature of the substance established in its existential condition is said to be three-fold (viz., consisting of origination, permanence and destruction); he, who knows it in detail, will not be infatuated with foreign substances.
155. The soul is constituted of the manifestation of consciousness; manifestation of consciousness is towards knowledge and cognition; the manifestation of consciousness of the soul is either auspicious, or inauspicious.
156. If the manifestation of consciousness is auspicious, the soul accumulates merit; in inauspicious, sin; in the absence of both there is no accumulation (of Karmas).
157. He, who recognises the great Jinas, attends on Siddhas as well as saints and is compassionate towards living beings, has an auspicious resultant of consciousness.
158. He, who is steeped in sensual pleasures and passions, who is given to false scriptures, evil intentions and wicked words, and who is cruel and goes astray, has an inauspicious resultant of consciousness.
159. Being free from inauspicious manifestation of consciousness and without the auspicious one towards foreign substances and being indifferent, I meditate on my self that is essentially constituted of knowledge.
160. I am neither the body, nor the mind, nor the speech, nor the cause thereof, nor the agent, nor the commissioner, nor the consentor of the doers.
161. It is pointed out that body, mind and speech are constituted of material substances; and the material substance, in turn, is a lump of atomic substances.
162. I am neither made of matter, nor is the matter lumped by me; therefore, I am neither the body nor the maker of that body.
163. The primary atom has no space-points; it is an unit of space-points and itself having no quality of sound; being arid or cohesive it comes to have two or more space-points.
164. It is said that the points of aridness or cohesiveness of an atom, because of transformation, increasing by one form one onwards, attain infinity.
165. Atomic modifications, cohesive or arid, whether (having) even or odd points, bind mutually, when ordinarily there is the difference of two points, the minimum point being excepted.
166. An atom with two points of cohesiveness binds with an atom of four points of cohesiveness or aridness; and that of three points with that of five points.
167. The gross entities (or molecules) which have two or more space-points and the subtle or gross earth-water-fire-air bodies come to have different shapes according to their modifications (of the qualities of cohesiveness or aridness).
168. The physical world is thickly packed everywhere with material bodies, subtle and gross, capable of being received or not (by the soul).
169. The molecules capable of becoming Karmas, coming into contact with the (passional) conditions or transformations of the soul, are developed into Karmas; and not that they are so transformed by the soul.
170. Those material bodies, which are transformed into Karmas, go to form the bodies, when the soul is passing into one more body again.
171. The physical body, the transformatory body, the electric body, the translocational body and the Karmic body: all these are made of material substance.
172. Know that the (pure) soul is without (the qualities of) taste, colour, smell, touch, and sound; it is all the quality of sentiency; it is beyond inferential mark; and it has no definable shape.
173. Material objects possessing the qualities of colour etc., mutually bind on account of their qualities of touch (viz., cohesiveness and aridness); the (nature of the) soul is quite opposed to this; then how is it that material Karmas bind it?
174. The soul, which is without colour etc., perceives and knows objects endowed with colour etc. and the qualities; similarly the (case of) bondage is to be understood.
175. The soul, which is constituted of the manifestation of consciousness, conceives infatuation, attachment or aversion having obtained various objects of pleasure; so again it is bounds up with them (i.e., the passional states).
176. It is by the attitude, with which the soul perceives and knows the objects of senses, that it is tinged; and it is thereby, moreover, the Karma binds: so goes the doctrine.
177. Bondage between material bodies is due to their qualities of touch etc. (i.e, cohesiveness and aridness); and that of the soul is due to attachment etc.; mutual interpenetration is said to be the bondage of soul and matter.
178. The soul has space-points, and in those space-points material bodies penetrate and remain as it may be possible; they pass away (according to their duration) or remain bound.
179. When the soul develops attachment, Karma binds; when it is without attachment, it becomes free from Karmas; know this to be in short the real description of the bondage of the soul.
180. Bondage results from the modification which consists of attachment, aversion and infatuation. Infatuation and aversion are inauspicious; while attachment is either auspicious or inauspicious.
181. It is already remarked that auspicious and inauspicious attitudes towards other (i.e., external) things lead to merit and sin (respectively). According to the doctrine (of the Jina), the attitude, which is (inclined) towards neither, is the cause of the destruction of misery.
182. (All) the living embodiments, immovable like the earth etc. and the movable, are different from the (essential nature of) soul; and the soul is essentially different from them.
183. He, who having realized (or accepted) his nature, does not understand the self and the non-self (and the difference between them), conceives, through infatuation, and attitude: I am this and this is mine.
184. The soul, effecting the development of its consciousness, is the agent of its own development; it is not the agent of all those conditions constituted of material substances.
185. The soul, though standing in the midst of matter all the while, neither accepts nor abandons, nor is the agent of material Karmas.
186. The soul, at present (i.e., in this transmigratory condition), being the agent of its own modification constituted out of its own substance, is sometimes bound up with or released from Karmic dust.
187. When the soul, under the influence of attachment or aversion develops itself into auspicious or inauspicious resultant of consciousness, the Karmic dust pours into it in the form of knowledge-obscuring etc.

4.* The fruitition of suspicious or inauspicious types (of Karmas) is intensified by pure and soiled attitudes (respectively); but in reverse to that, all the types have minimum intensity.

188. The soul, which has space-points, when soiled by infatuation, attachment and aversion, is clung by Karmic dust; and that is called bondage in the scripture.
189. The Arahantas have preached to the ascetics or saints this discourse in short on the bondage of the soul from the realistic standpoint of view; the same from the ordinary standpoint of view is something different.
190. He, who does not abandon the notion of mineness over the body and possessions that `I am this and this is mine’, gives up the sramanya (i.e., the status of a saint) and goes astray.
191. `I do not belong to others, nor do other belong to me; I am mere knowledge’; he, who meditates thus in concentration, comes to meditate on his (pure) self.
192. Thus I consider myself to be constituted of knowledge and faith, supersensuous, a great objectivity, eternal, stable, independent and pure.
193. Bodies, possessions, happiness, misery, friends or enemies are not the eternal associates of the soul; the soul is eternally constituted of the manifestation of consciousness.
194. He, who, knowing this and being pure in self, meditates on that highest Self, whether he is a layman or an ascetic, destroys the dangerous knot of delusion.
195. He, who has destroyed the knot of delusion, who has overthrown attachment and aversion and is indifferent to pleasure and pain in his condition of a Sramana, attains eternal happiness.
196. He, who has destroyed the dirt of delusion, has abstained from objects of pleasure, has restrained his mind and is established in his own nature, becomes a meditator of the self.
197. What does that great sage, who has destroyed the thick destructive Karmas, who directly comprehends all entities and realities, who has reached the end of the objects of knowledge and who is free from doubts, meditate upon?
198. Being free from all hindrances, being all round rich in knowledge and happiness of all the senses (together), being beyond the reach of senses and having no senses, he meditates on the highest happiness.
199. My salutation to that path leading to Nirvana and to those who, following it, attained the states of Sramanas, of Jinas, of Jinendras and of Siddhas.
200. Therefore, thus realizing the soul as the knower by nature, I give up the notion of mineness and have come to adopt the (notion of) non-attachment.

*5. My repeated salutations to those liberated saints whose faith (darsana) in pure, who are endowed with the manifestation of consciousness with respect to right knowledge and who are happy without hindrances.