Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/106

 9° Buddhist Philosophy ECHo suggested, namely, the works (karma) which produce the birth 1 ." Upadana is an advanced tfr:ta leading to positive clinging ll . It is produced by tfr:ta (desire) which again is the result of vedana (pleasure and pain). But this vedana is of course vedana with ignorance (avidyii), for an Arhat may have also vedana but as he has no avidya, the vedana cannot produce trr:ta in turn. On its development it immediately passes into upadana. Vedana means pleasurable, painful or indifferent feeling. On the one side it leads to trl)a (desire) and on the other it is produced by sense-contact (sparsa). Prof. De la Vallee Poussin says that SrIlabha distinguishes three processes in the production of vedana. Thus first there is the contact between the sense and the object; then there is the knowledge of the object, and then there is the vedana. Depending on M aJ}hima Nikiiya, iii. 24 2, Poussin gives the other opinion that just as in the case of two sticks heat takes place simultaneously with rubbing, so here also vedana takes place simultaneously with sparsa for they are "produits par un meme complexe de causes (siimagri)3." Sparsa is produced by aayatana, a<;layatana by namariipa, and namariipa by vijiiana, and is said to descend in the womb of the mother and produce the five skandhas as namariipa, out of which the six senses are specialized. Vijiiana in this connection probably means the principle or germ of consciousness in the womb of the mother upholding the five elements of the new body there. It is the product of the past karmas (saitkhiira) of the dying man and of his past consciousness too. Ve sometimes find that the Buddhists believed that the last thoughts of the dying man determined the nature of his next 1 Govindiinanda in his RatlZajrabhii on Sankara's bhaya,lI. ii. 19, explains "bhava" as that from which anything becomes, as merit and demerit (dharmiidi). See also Vibhanga, p. 137 and ;Varren's Buddhism in Translations, p. '201. Mr Aung says in Abhidhammatthasangaha, p. 189, that bhavo includes kammabhavo (the active side of an existence) and upapattibhavo (the passive side). And the commentators say that bhava is a contraction of" kammabhava" or Karma-becoming i.e. karmic activity. I Prof. De la Vallee Poussin in his Thlorie des Douze Causes, p. '26, says that Siilistambhasutra explains the word "upiidana" as II tpjl.1avaipulya" or hyper-tr!iil.18. and Candrakirtti also gives the same meaning,lIf. V. (B. T. S. p. '210). Govindananda explains c, upiidiina" as pravrtti (movement) generated by tr!iil.1a (desire), i.e. the active tendency in pursuance of desire. But if upiidiina means" support" it would denote all the five skandhas. Thus 1Iladhyamaka vrtti says upiidt.illam pa'1icaskandhalakfaam... paficopiidiillflSkalldhiikhyam upiidiinam. lII. V. XXVII. 6. 3 Poussin's Thlorie des Douze Causes, p. '23.