Дравьясанграха-вритти - Брахмадева

the appearance of the Dravyasaṃgraha-vṛtti, this Digambara teacher became not merely one of the authoritative thinkers of the past, but evidently his works have been already considered by the members of the Digambara tradition as part of the corpus of canonical texts. Despite the fact that the title of the commented work (and, consequently, of the commentary as well) indicates that this work is devoted to the discussion of substances recognized in Jainism, i.e., it is a treatise on ontology, the explanation of the nature of the six substances here acts as a means of comprehending the ātman. According to one of the publishers of this text, Pt. J. Śāstrī, Brahmadeva's commentary “is a good work on mysticism”.

The first adhikāra begins with the traditional expression of obeisance to the highest soul and then the author gives a general thematic distribution of the chapter’s gāthās as he does in all adhikāras. This chapter is mostly dedicated to the main ontological category of Jain Philosophy – the soul (jīva, ātman) and its principal characteristics. Brahmadeva gives a detailed exposition of the Jain understanding of knowledge and vision which constitute the nature of the ātman. This exposition is made according to the main epistemological approach of Jainism – the doctrine of two viewpoints, which consists of the conventional, or worldly, point of view (vyavahāranaya) and the non-conventional, or absolute, point of view (niścayanaya). The author of the commentary uses these viewpoints in the context of nayacakra, the “wheel of viewpoints”, which means a more complicated division of the two approaches: niścayanaya may be pure (śuddha) and impure (aśuddha) and vyavahāranaya may be distinctive (sadbhūta) and non-distinctive (asadbhūta), while each of them could be understood as transferred (upacarita) and non-transferred (anupacarita). Such epistemological versatility of Jainism shows a deep and multipurpose understanding of the reality made by Jain philosophers in comparison with other Indian philosophical schools – Naiyaikas, Sāṃkhyakas, Buddhists, Mīmāṃsakas and Carvakas.

Applied to the main Jain reality, the ātman, this sophisticated method provides an exhaustive explanation of the soul’s nature. From the conventional point of view, the soul is described as something having form, color, taste, smell, proportionate to its body (dehamātra) and bound by the participles of karmic matter, whereas from the real point of view the soul is only a consciousness which has two main natural characteristics – knowledge (jñāna) and vision (darśana). After this, Brahmadeva takes into consideration the different levels of the soul’s existence and its fourteen stages of spiritual self-development.

Along with explication of the soul’s attributes and qualities Brahmadeva gives an extensive explanation of non-living (ajīva) substances as well, which includes material (pudgala), media of motion (dharma), media of rest (adharma), space (ākāśa) and time (kāla). All of them constitute the world (loka) separated from the non-world (aloka). Brahmadeva pays special attention to the analysis of mechanism of matter particles’ penetration into the souls and how this penetration affects them. In Jain ontology, the reality most difficult to understand is time. Defining it as a substance changing other substances, the commentator distinguishes two types of time – conventional and non-conventional and states that only the latter is a substance per se. The conventional time, divided into moments, seconds, hours etc., is a duration which means just a mode of the real time. All substances having space-points are called “extended” (astikāya). Brahmadeva gives the etymology and usage of this Jain term in the context of Jain philosophy. The first chapter is concluded with an addition-cūlikā where the author repeats the main ideas of the chapter in a concise form.

The second adhikāra is dedicated to the seven categories of the Jain doctrine. The main subject of this part of the commentary is nature and sorts of karmic influx, types of souls’ bondage, their reasons, mechanism and consequences. In this adhikāra, Brahmadeva introduces a classification of various Jain notions and concepts such as highest virtues (uttamadharma), reflections (anuprekṣā) and so on. A considerable part of the chapter is taken up by a detailed exposition of the structure of the universe including the levels of Lower, Middle and Upper Worlds. The commentator draws a remarkable picture of the saṃsāra according to Jainism, saying that the main purpose of the soul is liberation from any kind of karma and its consequence – the existence in the wheel of birth and death. He explains the necessary conditions for such elimination of the karmic matter.

The third adhikāra deals with the Path of Liberation in which the true nature of the soul becomes realized. Technically, the Path of Liberation is understood as “three jewels” (ratnatraya) – the right vision, the right knowledge and the right conduct. It can be both conventional and absolute. From the worldly point of view, practicing all three enables a human being to obtain diverse positive qualities showing that this person is on the right path. The commentator gives examples of these virtues taken from Jain narrative literature. While considering these stories, Brahmadeva lists the Digambara scriptures (āgama) dealing with various topics of the Jain doctrine. From the non-conventional point of view, the Path of Liberation is only a realization of the ātman’s nature. In this context, Brahmadeva discusses the problem of appearance of perfect knowledge and vision in the state of omniscience. The last portion of the text deals with reflection upon the subject, stages and types of meditation. Brahmadeva concludes the commentary by recapping the overall structure of his work.

Примечания

1

Работа осуществлена при поддержке гранта РФФИ № 18-011-00311 а.

2

Подробнее о личности Махавиры, тиртханкарах и мировых эпохах см. [Железнова 2018: 28–29, 123–125, 287–290].

3

Дхарма (dharma) – в данном случае учение тиртханкаров. О всех значениях этого термина в джайнской традиции см. [Железнова 2018: 141].

4

Об этом подробнее см. [Железнова 2012а: 40–51; 2018: 30–32].

5

Публикация и изучение (и перевод, если речь идет о