Jain Aagam Acharanga - Shastra Parigya - Book 1 Chapter 1

Shastra Parigya meaning

’Shastra’ means an instrument of violence. What is destructive is a weapon for him.

जस्स विणासकारण त तस्स सत्थं भण्णइ। - [N.C.U.1, अभिज्ञान राजेंद्र कोश भा. 7 P. 21]

Knives, swords are material-based weapons and anger and hatred etc. are value-based weapons. Greed and aversion kill the qualities of the self, so anger and aversion are weapons for the soul.

Parijya means knowledge. There are two types of cognition:

1. cognition means knowing and
2. rejection means renunciation.

The simple meaning of Ayudha is to know the nature of violence and to renounce it.

The renunciation of violence is called non-violence, the main basis of non-violence is the soul. The belief in non-violence is strengthened only after the knowledge of the soul and non-violence can be practiced properly.

In the first sutra of the first lesson, referring to self-realization, it is said that a person attains self-realization either by himself or by listening to someone else’s teachings or by studying scriptures etc. After self-realization, there is a belief in the existence of the soul, which makes man subjective. Only a self-realist can practice non-violence.

Conclusion

Thus after the discussion on the existence of the soul, violence-non-violence is discussed. A vivid picture of the causes of violence, the nature of the chakras, the attainment of the six bodies, the repentance of the soul from violence, the theory of karma and the education to get rid of it, etc. are found in the first seven lessons of the study.