Acharya
Kundkund
Translated by A.N. Upadhye
Book
1
1.
Here I pay obeisance to VArdhamana, the saviour, the promulgator of
the law, who is saluted by the suras, Asuras and lords of men,
and who has washed off the dirt of destructive Karmas.
2. (I
pay obeisance) also to the remaining Tirthankaras (i.e., the
promulgators of the creed) along with all siddhas (i.e., the liberated
souls) whose nature is pure and to the sramanas (i.e., the saints)
whose behaviour is characterised by knowledge, faith, conduct, penance
and every.
3. I
pay obeisance to them collectively as well as individually and to the
contemporary Arahantas in the Manusa region.
4-5.
After saluting Arahantas (i.e., Tirthankaras), Siddhas also Ganadharas
(i.e., the direct disciples of Tirthankaras), the band of preceptors
and all the saints, and after having taken tie life (i.e, a state of
life, Asramna) of foremost knowledge and faith of pure nature, I
adopt equanimity whereby Nirvana is attained.
6.
Nirvana, along with the glories of Devas, Asuras and lords of men,
accrues to a soul through conduct pre-eminently characterised by faith
and knowledge.
7.
Verily this realisation is the Dharma, which, in turn, is pointed out
as equanimity; and equanimity is the state of the self in which
infatuatory perturbation is absent.
8.
For the time being a substance is said to be constituted of that by
which it is transformed; therefore the self should be recognised as
Dharma, when there is developed the condition of Dharma.
9.
The Soul whose nature is amenable to modification comes to be
auspicious, inauspicious or pure according as it develops auspicious,
inauspicious or pure states (of consciousness).
10.
There is no substance without a modification and no modification
without a substance; the existence of a thing is made up of substance,
quality and modification.
11.
The self that has developed equanimity, if endowed with pure
activities, attains heavenly happiness.
12.
By the rise of inauspicious activities, the soul wanders for long as a
low-graded human being, a sub-human being and a hellish one being
subject for ever to thousands of miseries.
13.
The happiness of those who are famous for their pure consciousness or
serenity is transcendental, born from the self, supersensuous,
incomparable, infinite and indestructible.
14.
That Sramana, who has well understood all things and the texts that
explain them, who is endowed with self-control and penances, who is
free from attachment, and to whom pleasure and pain are alike, is said
to represent pure consciousness. (For the definition of Sutra, see
Gatha 34).
15.
He, who has manifested pure consciousness and is free from (knowledge
and connation-) obscuring, obstructive and deluding Karmic dust, has
become self sufficient; and fully comprehends the objects of
knowledge.
16.
The omniscient, who has realised his nature and is worshipped by the
lords of all worlds, becomes self-sufficient; and he is called
Svayambhu.
17.
Further, he represents a condition of the collocation of permanence,
origination and destruction; though therein the origination is without
destruction and the destruction devoid of origination.
18.
In fact, every entity is characterised by existence; and it is with
regard to only one aspect that every object suffers origination and
destruction.
19.
He develops knowledge and happiness after having exhausted the
destructive Karmas, being endowed with excellent infinite strength and
excessive lustre and after becoming supersensuous.
*1.
The miseries of those beings, that have faith in him who is the best
among all things and who is respected by the foremost among gods of
demons, are exhausted.
20.
In the case of the omniscient, the pleasure or pain is not physical,
because he is endowed with super sensuousness: so it should be known.
21.
The omniscient who develops knowledge directly visualizes all objects
and their modifications; he does never comprehend them through the
sensational stages such as outliner grasp.
22.
Nothing is indirect to him who is himself ever omniscient and who is
all-round rich in the qualities of all the organs of senses
though himself beyond the senses.
23.
The soul is con-extensive with knowledge; knowledge is said to be
co-extensive with the object of knowledge; the object of knowledge
comprises the physical and non-physical universe; therefore knowledge
is omnipresent.
24-25. He, who does not admit the soul to be co-extensive with
knowledge, must indeed concede that the soul is either smaller or
larger than knowledge. If the soul is smaller, the knowledge, being
insentient, cannot know; if larger, how can it know in the absence of
knowledge?
26.
The great Jina is everywhere and all the objects in the world are
within him, since the Jina is an embodiment of knowledge and
since they are the objects of knowledge.
27.
The doctrine of Jina is that knowledge is the self and in the absence
of the self there cannot be (any) knowledge; therefore, knowledge is
the self, while the self is knowledge or anything else.
28.
The knower has knowledge for this nature and all the objects are
within the range of the knowledge, just as the objects of sight are
within the ken of the eye, though there is no mutual inherence.
29.
The knower, who is beyond sense-perception, necessarily knows and sees
the whole world neither entering into nor entered into by the objects
of knowledge, just as the eye sees the objects of sight.
30.
The knowledge operates on the objects, just as a sapphire, thrown in
the milk, pervades the whole of it with its lustre.
31.
If those are not within the knowledge, knowledge cannot be all
pervasive; the knowledge is all-pervasive, how then objects are not
existing in it?
32.
The omniscient lord neither accepts nor abandons, nor transforms the
external objectivity; he sees all around, and knows everything
completely.
33.
He, who clearly understands the self as of the nature of the knower on
the authority of the scriptural knowledge, is called a srutakevalin by
the sages that enlighten the world.
34.
That which is preached by the Jina through words, which are
constituted of material substance, it called the sutra (or the sacred
text); knowledge consists in knowing it, and hence the sacred text
also is designated as knowledge.
35.
He who knows is knowledge; the self does not become a knower with
knowledge (as an extraneous instrument). The very self develops
knowledge, and all the objects stand (reflected) in the knowledge.
36.
Therefore the self is knowledge; the object of knowledge is the
substance, which is said to be threefold; he substance
comprises the soul and the (five) other (substances), which are prone
to modification.
37.
All modifications, present and absent, of all those types of
substances, stand essentially (reflected) in the knowledge, as if in
the present.
38.
Those, which have never originated and those, in fact, that have been
and are already destroyed are the absent modifications; they are
directly visualised in omniscience.
39.
If that omniscience would not directly visualise the future and past
modifications, who then would call that knowledge super-natural?
40.
It is declared that it is impossible to know the past and future for
those who (are accustomed to) know the object by means of
discrimination and other stages (of perception), when it has fallen
within the range of the senses.
41.
That is called supersensuous knowledge which knows any substance, with
or without space-points, with or without form, and those
modifications which have not come into existence and those which are
destroyed.
42.
If the knower develops the influence of the object known, then he does
not possess the knowledge which is born after the destruction of
Karmas; the great Jinas say that he who so develops (merely) enjoys
the fruit of Karma.
43.
The great Jinas say that portions of Karmas are necessarily operating
(and giving their fruit); he, who is infatuated with, or shows
attachment or aversion towards, them, necessarily incurs bondage (of
Karmas).
44.
In the case of Arahantas, at the time of their Arhatship, (certain
activities like) standing, sitting, moving about and religious
discourse are natural (and necessary consequences of the Karmic
fruition with no effort on their part), just as acting deceitfully is
in the case of women.
45.
Arahantas owe their status to the fruits of merits (or meritorious
Karmas); their activities are the consequences of the Karmic
operations; their activities are called ksayiki (i.e., due to the
destruction of Karmas), because they are free from infatuation etc.
46.
The transmigratory existence would be an impossibility in the case of
all the embodied beings, if the soul itself is naturally
incapable of developing auspicious and inauspicious states.
47.
That knowledge is called ksayika (i.e., produced after the destruction
of Karmas) which knows completely and simultaneously the whole range
of variegated and unequal objectivity of the present and otherwise.
48.
He, who does not know simultaneously the objects of the three tenses
and in the three worlds, cannot know even a single substance with its
(infinite) modifications.
49. A
single substance has infinite modes and infinite are the classes of
substances; if he does not know (them) simultaneously, how will he be
able to know all of them?
50.
if the knower, after coming into contact with the objectivity,
produces knowledge step by step; that knowledge cannot be eternal,
neither can it be ksayika nor all-pervasive.
51.
The omniscience of the Jina knows simultaneously the (whole range of)
variegated and unequal objectivity possible in all places and present
in three tenses; indeed great is the glory of that knowledge !
52.
The soul (of the omniscient), though knowing all the things, does not
transform itself (under their influence), does not receive (any-thing
external), nor does it become one among them; and hence it is said to
be without Karmic bondage.
*2.
Him ever adores the devoted world consisting of Devas, Asuras and
lords of men; so do I devotedly adore him.
53.
Just as knowledge of various entities is super-sensitive with
reference to non-concrete and sensitive with regard to concrete
things, so too is happiness; that which is the best of those (two)
should be realized.
54.
That is pratyaksa knowledge which perceives (all) the non-concrete
(things), among the concrete those (atoms etc.) that are beyond the
scope of senses, those that are hidden and all others that are related
to substances and also that are not.
55.
The soul itself is non-concrete (i.e., devoid of the sense-qualities);
when it is embodied, it comes to be concrete; (thus, being coupled
with senses,) it perceives the perceptible through (the stages of)
outlinear grasp etc., or sometimes it does not.
56.
The sense-qualities of touch, taste, smell, colour and sound have a
reference to material objects; the sense-organs can never grasp them
simultaneously.
57.
The sense-organs are the foreign stuff; they can never be said to form
the nature of the soul. How then what is perceived by them can be
direct (pratyaksa or immediate) for the soul?
58.Perception of things through a foreign agency is called paroksa,
indirect or mediate; whatever is perceived by the soul alone is
pratyaksa, direct or immediate?
59.
That self-born, perfect, and pure knowledge which spreads over
infinite things and which is free from (the stages of perception such
as) outlinear grasp etc., is called the real happiness.
60.
Whatever is known as omniscient knowledge, that alone is a condition
of happiness, no (trace of) miserly is said to be there, since the
destructive Karmas are exhausted.
61.
(In the omniscient) the knowledge reaches the very verge of
objectivity, and the vision extends over the physical and
superphysical universe; in Him all that is undesirable is destroyed
and whatever is desirable is achieved.
62.
The abhavya souls do not believe the statement that the happiness of
those who are free from destructive Karmas is the best of all, while
the bhavya souls accept it (and believe).
63.
Lords of men, Asuras and Amaras, harassed by senses that are born with
them, being unable to bear with the pain, sport themselves with
attractive objects of senses.
64.
Know that misery to be natural for those who are attached to the
objects of senses; if it is not natural, there would not be any
attempt for the objects of senses.
65.
It is not the body, but the very soul itself, that develops happiness
having obtained desired objects that are naturally endowed with the
qualities of touch etc.
66.
Really speaking, the body does not make any embodied being happy even
in heaven; but the soul itself develops happiness or misery
coming under the influence of the objects of enjoyment.
67.
If the visual faculty of people could remove darkness, then the lamp
is of no avail; so when the soul itself is happiness, what then the
objects of enjoyment contribute?
68.
Just as the sun, all by himself is lustrous and warm, and a deity of
the sky, so also the liberated soul is (endowed with) knowledge and
happiness, and is a divinity of the world.
*3.
He is Arhan (i.e., worshipful one) whose glory consists of lustre,
conation, knowledge, supernatural accomplishment, happiness, affluence
and the leading lordship of the three worlds.
*4. I
repeatedly offer obeisance to the Siddha, who is superior and never
suffering in his merits, who holds lordship over men and Devas and who
is ever (hereafter) bound to take birth anymore.
69.
The soul, that is devoted to the worship of God, ascetic and the
preceptor, to the offering of gifts, to virtuous conduct, and to
the observance of fasts, is of auspicious activities (or manifestation
of consciousness).
70.
The soul, endowed with auspicious manifestation of consciousness, is
born as a sub-human or human being or a god, and during that period,
obtains different kinds of sensual pleasures.
71.
It is evident from the doctrine that the happiness even of the gods is
not self-established; oppressed by physical urge, they sport
themselves with attractive objects of senses.
72.
If men, denizens of hell, sub-human beings and gods (indiscriminately)
suffer misery incidental of body, then of what avail is the
(distinction of) auspicious or inauspicious activity of the soul?
73.
Indra and other sovereigns, quite engrossed as if they are happy,
nourish their bodies etc. by means of enjoyments that are the
consequences of auspicious activities.
74.
If there are, in fact, different merits resulting from auspicious
activities (or mental condition), they (merely) occasion a sensual
thirsts to all the beings among whom the gods come last (in the order
of enumeration).
75.
Moreover those beings, with their thirst enhanced, pained with desires
and burning with misery, hanker after the pleasures of senses and
experience them till their death.
76.
Happiness derived through sense-organs is dependent, amendable to
disturbances, terminable, a cause of bondage and dangerous; and hence
it is misery in disguise.
77.
He, who does not admit that there is no difference between merit and
demerit, wanders in this horrible and boundless
transmigratory existence muffled in delusion.
78.
Thus, knowing the nature of reality, he, who does not entertain
attachment or aversion for any object, destroys all physical pain,
being endowed with pure manifestation of consciousness.
79.
Having abandoned sinful activities and proceeding on the path of
auspicious conduct, if one does not abandon delusion etc., he cannot
realize the pure self.
*5.
He is the God who is known for his austerities and self-control, who
is pure, who paves the path of heaven and liberation, who is
worshipped by the lords of Amaras and Ausras and who stands at the
summit of the physical world.
*6.
Those men attain eternal happiness who salute the God among the gods
of gods, who is foremost among the great saints, and who is the
preceptor of the three worlds.
80.
He, who knows the Arahanta with respect to substantiality, quality and
modification, realizes himself; and his delusion, in fact, dwindles
into destruction.
81.
The soul, being free from delusion and having grasped well the reality
of the self, realizes the pure self, if it abandons attachment and
aversion.
82.
It is in this way that even all the Arahantas have destroyed portions
of Karmas; preaching the same they attained Nirvana: my obeisance to
them.
*7.
Bow unto those persons who are pure in faith, foremost in knowledge,
practising perfect conduct, and who deserve respect, honour and gifts.
83.
The deluded notion of the soul about substances etc. is called
delusion, muffled therein and developing attachment or aversion the
soul is baffled.
84.
Various kinds of bondage become possible, when the soul develops
delusion, attachment or aversion; therefore they are to be destroyed.
85.
False perception of things, absence of kindness towards subhuman and
human beings and indulging with objects of pleasure-these are the
characteristics of delusion or infatuation.
86.
He, who regularly understands the reality from the Jaina scriptures
with direct and other proofs, exhausts the heap of delusion;
therefore the scripture should be studied.
87.
Substances, qualities and their modifications are (technically)
signified by the term artha; and among them, it is said, that the
substance is the substratum of qualities and modifications.
88.
He, who destroys delusion, attachment and aversion, after having
grasped the discourse of the Jina, escapes from all miseries within a
short time.
89.
He, who really knows his soul as constituted of knowledge and others
as only related with it as substances, effects the destruction of
delusion.
90.
Therefore, if the soul aspires after the delusionless state of the
self, it should understand from the Jaina creed the self and the
non-self among the (scheme of) substances with regard to their
quantities.
91.
He, who, in his state of Sramanya (i.e., asceticism), never believes
in these substances with their closely related generality of existence
and various special qualities, is not a Sramana; and religious purity
is not possible for him.
92.
The great souled Sramana, who has put an end to his delusive vision,
who is expert in scriptures and who has established himself in conduct
free from attachment, is qualified as Dharma.
*8.
He acquires religious merit who, at his sight, is pleased, stands up
and respects him with salutation, obeisance etc.
*9.
Thereby, human and sub-human beings, obtaining the grades of gods and
men, have their desires ever fulfilled with wealth and
affluence.
