6. Chapter 6 - The False Ascetic

1All men who are ignorant of the Truth are subject to pain; in the endless Saṃsāra they suffer in many ways. (1)

2Therefore a wise man, who considers well the ways that lead to bondage[1] and birth, should himself search for the truth, and be kind towards all creatures. (2)

3‘Mother, father, daughter-in-law, brother, wife, and sons will not be able to help me, when I suffer for my own deeds[2].’ (3)

4This truth should be taken to heart[3] by a man of pure faith; he should (therefore) cut off greed and love, and not hanker after his former connections. (4)

5Cows 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. (5)[4]

6Everything 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 combating them. (6)

7Seeing that to accept (presents) leads to hell, one should not accept even a blade of grass; only to preserve one’s life[5] one should eat the food that is put in one’s own alms-bowl. (7)

8Here some are of opinion that they will be delivered from all misery by merely attending the teacher[6], without abstaining from sins. (8) 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. (9)

9Clever 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. (to)

10They are (going) a long way in the endless Saṃsāra; therefore looking out carefully one should wander about carefully[7]. (11)

11Choosing 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. (12)

12Those will reap pains who, in thoughts, words, or acts, are attached to their body, to colours, and to forms. (13)

13Recognising the cause of Karman, 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). (14)

14An 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[8], so he with his alms-bowl should wander about without desires. (15) Receiving alms in a manner to avoid faults[9], and controlling one’s self, one should wander about in a village (&c.) without a fixed residence; careful among the careless one should beg one’s food. (16)

15Thus has spoken the Arhat Jñātṛputra, the venerable native of Vaiśālī[10], who possesses the highest knowledge and who possesses the highest faith, who possesses (at the same time) the highest knowledge and the highest faith. (17)

16Devendra here quotes the following Sanskrit verse: Kalatranigaḍaṃ dattvā na saṃtuṣṭaḥ prajāpatih | bhūyo'py apatyarūpeṇa dadāti galasriṅkhalam. The creator was not satisfied when he had given (to man) the wife as a fetter, he added a chain round his neck in the form of children.

17This verse recurs in Sūtrakṛtāṅga I, 9, 5.

18Sapehāe pāse = svaprekṣayā paśyet, he should look at it with his mind or reflectively. However sapehāe is usually the absolute participle samprekṣya. The meaning is the same in both cases.

19Some MSS. insert here the following verse: 'Movables and immovables, corn, and furniture can not deliver a man from pain, who is suffering for his deeds.'

20This is according to the commentators the meaning of the word doguñchī = jugupsin.

21Āyariyaṃ vidittāṇaṃ. The commentator makes this out p. 26 to mean: by learning only what right conduct (ācārikam) is, without living up to it. But it is obvious that the author intends a censure upon the Jñānamārga.

22As usual this phrase means: one should conduct one’s self so as to commit no sin.

23There is a pun in the original on the word patta, which means plumes (patra) and alms-bowl (pātra).

24This is the eṣaṇāsamiti. On the samitis see below, Twelfth Lecture, 2.

25Vesalie = Vaiśālīka. See my remarks on this statement in part i, introduction, p. xi, and Hoernle’s notes in his translation of the Uvāsaga Dasāo, p. 3 ff.