by: Dr. Amit Prakash Jain
“Tattvarth shradhanam samyakdarshanam” – Sri Tattvartha Sutraji .Right faith or samyakdarshan is the true shradhan or faith in the tattvas.
There are seven tattvas- Jeev, ajeev, ashrav, bandh, samvar, nirjara and moksha.
Swetamber texts describes 9 tattvas which includes paap and punya as the two additional ytattvas, but paap and punnya are taken by digamber texts as punya- ashrav, punya-bandha, paap-ashrav and paap-bandha.So we can say that tattvas are nearly the same in both traditions.
Jeev is the self-soul, which has infinite qualities, has infinite indivisible parts called as pradesh, and only jeev tattva has gyan or knowledge.
Ajeev tattva is the pudgal that is the non-living material,it also has various qualities like hard-soft,red-blue-green, sour-sweet etc.But these qualities cannot be enjoyed by it as ajeev do not have knowledge.Pugal can be matter or energy.
For Ashrav,bandh, samvar , nirjara let me give eg from barah bhavana by Sri Mangatramji.
Suppose, there is a boat and a hole is there in that boat, then the water enters in that boat thru the hole.This is how the entry of karmas to the pradesh (indivisible units of soul) of the soul occurs.This entry is "Ashrav".This water can be fresh or dirty- smelling.Dirty water adds to extra burden and problems in the boat.This dirty water is the paap karmas.Fresh water is like punya karma,in anyway it also adds to the drowning of the boat.Punya Ashrav is also making us unsailable thru this sea of bhavsagar.
There are various pockets or spaces inside the boat in which this water can accumulate for a long time.This water logging is “Bandha” tattva,means when karmas have stuck to the soul and are not getting away easily on their own.
Now, when the boatman realises about this he puts a lid on that hole so that water doesn’t enter into the boat.This lid to avoid Ashrav of karmas is “Samvar” tattava.
What can this lid be actually? Jain texts describes some 57 bhavs for the samvar
which includes Barah bhavana, 22 parishahas etc.
But,this will prevent the new entry of water, what about the water which has already logged inside the boat, that is the karma bandhas?
For this 2 things can happen.First is that in due course of time due to sunlight, that is heat, this water evaporates on its own, but it will take really a lot of time and even till then whether the lid will remain in its place or not- can’t be said.
Second one is that the boatman do hardwork (purushartha) and himself removes and throw the logged water out.
This both above 2 things are “nirjara” tattva.First was savipak nirjara,in which the soul is not doing any purushartha, while the second is Avipak nirjara in which the soul does purushartha by various Tapas etc to get rid of the karma bandhas.
Finally, a condition comes when there is lid in the boat plus there is no logged in water inside.In such a situation,the boat will sail up to the sea-shore.
These examples I have taken from the barah bhavana “Kahaan gaye chakri- - - - )”
A point to note here is that even when soul is doing prushartha, the lid or samvara is very necessary, so that the vicious cycle of water entry, that is karma ashrav is stopped, otherwise the hardwork is futile.
“samvar sahit karo tap prani mile mukti rani
Is dulhan ki yahi saheli janey sab gyani”
Moksha tattva means when the boatman reaches the sea-shore, that is no more journey,and the goal is reached.
