Thus obstructions (ávaraṇa)[78] cloud the knowledge and intuition, as a cloud obscures the sun or a shade the lamp. This is (a) jnánávaraṇa, or (b) darśanávaraṇa. (c) An object recognised as simultaneously existing or non-existing produces mingled pleasure and pain, as licking honey from a sword's edge—this is vedaníya. (d) A delusion (mohaníya) in intuition produces want of faith in the Jaina categories, like association with the wicked; delusion in conduct produces want of self-restraint, like intoxication. (e) Áyus produces the bond of body, like a snare.[79] (f) Náman, or "the name," produces various individual appellations, as a painter paints his different pictures. (g) Gotra produces the idea of noble and ignoble, as the potter fashions his pots. (h) Antaráya produces obstacles to liberality, &c., as the treasurer hinders the king by considerations of economy.
Thus is the prakṛiti-bandha eightfold, being denominated as the eight múla-prakṛitis, with subdivisions according to the different actions of the various subject-matter.
And thus has Umáswáti-váchakáchárya[80] declared: "The first kind of bandha consists of obstructions of the knowledge and the intuition, vedaníya, mohaníya, áyus, náman, gotra, and antaráya;" and he has also reckoned up the respective subdivisions of each as five, nine, twenty-eight, four, two, forty, two, and fifteen. All this has been explained at full length in the Vidyánanda and other works, and here is omitted through fear of prolixity.
2. Sthiti. As the milk of the goat, cow, buffalo, &c., have continued unswerving from their sweet nature for so long a period, so the first three múla-prakṛitis, jnánávaraṇa, &c., and the last, antaráya, have not swerved from their respective natures even through the period described in the words, "sthiti lasts beyonds crores of crores of periods of time measured by thirty ságaropamas."[81] This continuance is sthiti.
3. Anubháva. As in the milk of goats, cows, buffaloes, &c., there exists, by its rich or poor nature, a special capacity for producing[82] its several effects, so in the different material bodies produced by our actions there exists a special capacity (anubháva) for producing their respective effects.
4. Pradeśa. The bandha called pradeśa is the entrance into the different parts of the soul by the masses, made up of an endless number of parts, of the various bodies which are developed by the consequences of actions.
Saṃvara is the stopping of ásrava—that by which the influence of past actions (karman) is stopped from entering into the soul. It is divided into gupti, samiti, &c. Gupti is the withdrawal of the soul from that "impulse" (yoga) which causes mundane existence—it is threefold, as relating to body, speech, or mind. Samiti is the acting so as to avoid injury to all living beings. This is divided into five kinds, as íryá,[83] bháshá, &c., as has been explained by Hemachandra.
1. "In a public highway, kissed by the sun's rays, to walk circumspectly so as to avoid injuring living beings, this the good call íryá.
2. "Let him practise[84] a measured utterance in his intercourse with all people; this is called bháshá-samiti, dear to the restrainers of speech.
3. "The food which the sage takes, ever free from the forty-two faults which may accrue to alms, is called the eshaṇá-samiti.[85]
4. "Carefully looking at it and carefully seating himself upon it, let him take a seat, &c., set it down, and meditate—this is called the ádána-samiti.
5. "That the good man should carefully perform his bodily evacuations in a spot free from all living creatures,[86]—this is the utsarga-samiti.[87] Hence samvara has been etymologically analysed as that which closes (sam + vṛiṇoti) the door of the stream of ásrava,[88] as has been said by the learned, 'Ásrava is the cause of mundane existence, saṃvara is the cause of liberation;[89] this is the Árhat doctrine in a handful; all else is only the amplification of this.'"
Nirjará is the causing the fruit of past actions to decay by self-mortification, &c.; it destroys by the body the merit and demerit of all the previously performed actions, and the resulting happiness and misery; "self-mortification" means the plucking out of the hair, &c. This nirjará is twofold,[90] "temporary" (yathákála) and ancillary (aupakramaṇika). It is "temporary" as when a desire is dormant in consequence of the action having produced its fruit, and at that particular time, from this completion of the object aimed at, nirjará arises, being caused by the consumption of the desire, &c. But when, by the force of asceticism, the sage turns all actions into means for attaining his end (liberation), this is the nirjará of actions. Thus it has been said: "From the decaying of the actions which are the seeds of mundane existence, nirjará arises, which is twofold, sakámá and akámá. That called sakámá belongs to ascetics, the akámá to other embodied spirits."[91]
Moksha. Since at the moment of its attainment there is an entire absence of all future actions, as all the causes of bondage (false perception, &c.) are stopped,[92] and since all past actions are abolished in the presence of the causes of nirjará, there arises the absolute release from all actions—this is moksha; as it has been said: "Moksha is the absolute release from all actions by the decay (nirjará) of the causes of bondage and of existence."
Then the soul rises upward to the end of the world. As a potter's wheel, whirled by the stick and hands, moves on even after these have stopped, until the impulse is exhausted, so the previous repeated contemplations of the embodied soul for the attainment of moksha exert their influence even after they have ceased, and bear the soul onward to the end of the world; or, as the gourd, encased with clay, sinks in the water, but rises to the surface when freed from its encumbrance, so the soul, delivered from works, rises upward by its isolation,[93] from the bursting of its bonds like the elastic seed of the castor-oil plant, or by its own native tendency like the flame.
"Bondage" is the condition of being unseparated, with a mutual interpenetration of parts [between the soul and the body]; saṅga is merely mutual contact. This has been declared as follows:—
"[Liberation] is unhindered, from the continuance of former impulses, from the absence of saṅga, from the cutting of all bonds, and from the natural development of the soul's own powers of motion, like the potter's wheel, the gourd with its clay removed, the seed of the castor-oil plant, or the flame of fire."
Hence they recite a śloka:—
"However often they go away, the