COMPASSION
EDUCATION
Adhar Papsthanak Sutra By Anop R. Vora, Fort Myers, FL
Anop Vora is involved in Community services and Promotion of Professional Education in the Jain Community. His current interests are Listening to Spiritual Discourses, Meditation, Reading, and Writing on religious topics. e-mail: vora5000@yahoo.com
The Adhar Papsthanak Sutra written in Gujarati is one of the most comprehensive summary of the 18 sinful activities we perform quite often - some done out of sheer habit and others due to ignorance and lack of awareness. Unfortunately, this is true of much of human life. We are supposed to recite this sutra during the morning and evening rituals of Pratikraman to remind ourselves of these karmic generating activities done through body, mind and speech and decide not to repeat them, going forward. Reciting this sutra with pure feelings and awareness every day gives us a wonderful opportunity to cleanse and elevate ourselves spiritually. Our seers recognized that worldly souls do unwholesome acts without knowing what they are doing. This sutra is designed to bring us back to the path of right conduct.
Sins 1 to 5: Major Sins: Pranatipat, Mrushavad, Adattadan, Maithun, Parigrah The sutra is composed rather nicely. It starts with a listing of the five major sins, staying away from which form the laws of basic ethics: similar to the ten commandments of Christianity. Specifically, it asks us to stay away from Violence (Pranatipat), Falsehood
(Mrushavad), Stealing (Adattadan), Lust (Maithun), and Possessiveness (Parigrah). Jain monks must take a vow to comply with these important canons for life, 24 hours a day without any exception. For us, worldly souls, we are supposed to practice them to the best of our ability.
Sins 6 to 9: Toxic Emotions - Krodh, Maan, Maya, Lobh The next four entail the control of toxic emotions of Anger (Krodh), Arrogance/Ego (Maan), Deception (Maya) and Greed (Lobh). Although not mentioned specifically in the sutra, 9 auxiliary emotions dubbed Nokashays of laughter, fear, sorrow, disgust, likes, dislikes, sexual urges of man, woman and bisexuals are also embedded into the primary emotions. The sutra is advising us to control all 13 emotions throughout the day because they are the prime movers for the first 5 major sins. They are the main reason for initiating the vicious karmic cycle. The control of toxic emotions is so important in Jainism that they are repeated in many sutras one way or the other. 19