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Cause of sufferings and Mithyatva

Mokshamarg Prakashak:



Chapter 2 describes that all Sansari jeev are afflicted with a disease and talks about the symptoms of the disease. The disease here is that he has been paralysed by Karma, and in the process, he has lost his real-self. The goal of this chapter is to first make a Jeev realize that it indeed suffers from this disease. Because once this realization dawns upon him, he can then go and make efforts to cure himself of this disease.



Chapter 3 then aims at strengthening this notion of disease and does a deep analysis of the reasons for this disease. The goal is to make a person aware of the true reasons for the disease, because until he understands them, he won't take the right steps to cure the disease.



So here goes a brief summary of the first few pages.



The reasons for "Dukh" in this Sansar are: Mithyadarshan (wrong belief), Agyan (ignorance) and Asanyam (lack of controlled conduct).



It then talks about how Kshayopsham of Gyanavarniya and Darshanvarniya karma leads to Dukh. Becuase of this Kshaypsham, a jeev has some knowledge (it is partially uncovered by Karmas) and because of Mithyadarshan (which is a Nimitt karan), a jeev desires for Indriya sukh. This desire could be a desire to satisfy taste buds (eat good food), or a desire to satisfy the ears (listening to music) and so on and so forth. However, the jeev doesn't realize that he is not really enjoying the taste of the object of his desire, but it is the taste of his own knowledge that morphed such when this object came in contact with the body of the jeev. . The jeev feels joy because of the anxiety that subsided when his desire got fulfilled. However, the desires don't end there. As soon as a desire ends, new desires are born. And if a desire doesn't get fulfilled, the jeev becomes sad. The intensity of fulfilling a desire is sometimes so much that a person doesn't even care for his life in order to fulfil it. A butteryfly, in order to smell the flower, goes and sits on it, and gives up its life as the flower closes its petals.

Even in real life, we see that we desire for promotions in job, we desire for appreciation, we desire for money...and when we don't get them, we feel bad. Thus, the root cause of dukh is desire. The question is: is it possible to fulfil these desires in our state? If the answer was yes, then we should do whatever it takes to fulfil them. However, if the answer is no, then the only way to become happy is by uprooting the desires completely.



The answer is: No, it is not possible to fulfil all the desires:

1) If there was a single desire that had to be fulfilled, or a limited number of desires, this may have been possible. But, desires never end as mentioned earlier. New desires are always born when the previous desires were fulfilled.

2) As explained earlier, it is the knowledge about the object of desire that makes a jeev feel happy, and not the object itself. And so, all desires can be fulfilled only if the jeev became all-knowing. With Kshayopsham gyan, this is not possible and so it is impossible to fulfil all the desires.



Now, let's think about what kind of efforts does a jeev make to fuflil the desires.



1) He engages in activities that make his Indriya and Sharir healthy, so that he can enjoy objects that give sensual pleasure.

2) He engages in activities that would help him gather the objects of sensual pleasure - for instance, he works so that he can live luxuriously, gets good house, goes out for fun activities, visits bars, par-stri gaman and so on.



Little does he realize that:

1) These objects are not dependent on him and so they may or may not behave in the way he likes. For instance, he may make efforts to earn money, but he may not make if because of his Paap Karmas.

2) Even if he gets these objects, he may not be in a position to enjoy them, because his senses may not give him the company.

3) Indulgence in such activities, only results in new Karma Bandh, which is the cause of Dukh in future.



It has been said in Pravchan Saar:



The pleasure that has been obtained via senses is

1) Dependent on Par (that is, it is not dependent on me, but rather on Karmas and thus doesn't follow my wishes)

2) Badha sahit (it may or may not be possible to enjoy them)

3) Cause of Karma bandh

4) Visham (??)



And thus it is the cause of suffering, and nothing else.





Thus, the conclusion is that desires that stem from Mithyadarshan are the root cause of Dukh and the only way to become happy is getting rid of desires.



Questions:

1) If a desire is produced only because of Kshayopsham gyan (because otherwise pudgal jad padarth would also be dukhi because of desires), then what is the harm in accepting Kavlahaar in Arihant bhagwaan. Shwetambars say that Kavlahaar in kevali is said to happen because of Aahar Paryapti and Vedniya naam karma. I see no problem in accepting this. All Jain sects accept that all the 4 Ghatiya karmas have been washed off in the Arihant state, and thus there is no longer any Kshayopsham, but only Keval gyan. Thus, saying that if a Kevali eats food, it is because of his own Ichcha doesn't seem to go well with the argument that Ichcha is becasue of Kshayopsham gyan.

2) What about Nigodiya jeev? They have so less Kshayopsham gyan (almost zero) that it would seem that they shouldn't be having too many desires, if Kshayopsham gyan was the cause of desires.

The Start

It has been almost 3 years since I last blogged. Partly because I did not have anything to post nad partly because I did not find time. I hope to be more active here, at least now that I've got some topics in mind. I do not intend to waste time here, but instead I'm hoping that this would be a way to put down some mental notes of things that I read and think about.