Chapter 9 · 47 sūtras
Stoppage and Shedding
Saṃvara-Nirjarā Adhyāya
The longest and most practical chapter. Saṃvara — stopping the inflow — is achieved by three guptis, five samitis, ten dharmas, twelve anuprekṣās, endurance of twenty-two parīṣahas, and five kinds of conduct. Nirjarā — shedding karma already bound — is achieved by austerity, external and internal, six kinds each. The chapter culminates in dhyāna: the four kinds of concentration, of which the last two, dharma-dhyāna and śukla-dhyāna, are the actual instruments of liberation. It closes by ranking ascetics and stating who can shed how much.
Learning objectives
- Define saṃvara and list its six means.
- Name the three guptis and five samitis and distinguish restraint from careful action.
- Recite the ten-fold dharma.
- Name the twelve anuprekṣās and explain any three in depth.
- List the six external and six internal austerities.
- Explain the four dhyānas and identify which two lead to liberation.
Key concepts
- Saṃvara
- The exact inverse of āsrava: whatever causes influx, its opposite causes stoppage. Restraint of activity (gupti) stops it negatively; careful activity (samiti) allows necessary action without inflow.
- Ten dharmas
- Forbearance, modesty, straightforwardness, purity (freedom from greed), truth, restraint, austerity, renunciation, non-attachment and celibacy — each qualified as 'uttama', supreme, meaning practised without any expectation of return.
- Twelve anuprekṣās
- Impermanence, helplessness, transmigration, solitariness, distinctness of soul and body, impurity of body, influx, stoppage, shedding, the universe, rarity of enlightenment, and the nature of the teaching. Reflection is treated as an active technique, not passive thought.
- Parīṣaha-jaya
- Twenty-two hardships — hunger, thirst, cold, heat, insects, nakedness, discontent, women, wandering, seating, resting, abuse, beating, begging, non-gain, illness, thorns, dirt, honour, learning, ignorance, and lack of faith — to be endured without disturbing equanimity.
- Tapas and dhyāna
- Six external austerities discipline the body; six internal ones — especially prāyaścitta, vinaya, vaiyāvṛtya, svādhyāya, vyutsarga and dhyāna — purify the mind. Dhyāna is the highest internal austerity and the direct cause of kevala-jñāna.
Diagrams
Six headings that stop the inflow (9.2).
Six external, six internal — the internal rank higher (9.19-9.20).
Concentration is morally neutral until it is qualified (9.29-9.30).
Reflections to be returned to daily (9.7).
Reference plates
Large master charts for this chapter. Tap to open full screen and zoom.
Karma status at each guṇasthāna
Which of the eight karmas is present, in subsidence (upaśama) or destroyed (kṣaya) at each of the fourteen stages, with the upaśama and kṣapaka paths after stage 10.
Chapters 8, 9
Karma and the fourteen guṇasthānas — complete map
The eight karmas split into ghātiyā and aghātiyā, the state of the soul at each stage, the detail of darśana- and cāritra-mohanīya, and the journey from bondage to liberation.
Chapters 8, 9, 10
Master summary sheet — the whole system on one page
Six dravyas, seven tattvas, eight karmas, twenty-eight mohanīya prakṛtis, fourteen guṇasthānas, samyagdarśana and its eight aṅgas, four kaṣāyas × four intensities, nine no-kaṣāyas, the ratnatraya, five samitis, three guptis and the full journey from mithyātva to mokṣa.
Chapters 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Broad classification of karmas
A full tree: ghātiyā vs aghātiyā, karmas directly controllable by the soul vs not, darśana- and cāritra-mohanīya, the sixteen kaṣāya-mohanīya, the nine no-kaṣāyas, and what each intensity of passion does and where it drops away.
Chapters 8, 9
Sūtras
47 key sūtras of this chapter, with word-level notes and cross-links.
- 9.1
आस्रवनिरोधः संवरः
āsravanirodhaḥ saṃvaraḥ
Stoppage is the obstruction of influx.
Defined purely negatively and in relation to chapter 6. To know what to do, one reads the causes of influx and reverses each.
- 9.2
स गुप्तिसमितिधर्मानुप्रेक्षापरीषहजयचारित्रैः
sa guptisamitidharmānuprekṣāparīṣahajayacāritraiḥ
It is achieved by restraint, carefulness, virtue, reflection, conquest of hardships and conduct.
Six headings that between them contain fifty-seven items. This sūtra is the syllabus of Jain ascetic training.
- 9.3
तपसा निर्जरा च
tapasā nirjarā ca
By austerity, both stoppage and shedding occur.
Austerity is unique in doing double duty: it prevents new karma and burns off old. This is why it is listed under both tattvas.
- 9.4
सम्यग्योगनिग्रहो गुप्तिः
samyagyoganigraho guptiḥ
Proper control of activity is restraint.
Three guptis — of mind, speech and body. 'Samyak' rules out suppression by force or dullness; it means intelligent, voluntary withdrawal.
- 9.5
ईर्याभाषैषणादाननिक्षेपोत्सर्गाः समितयः
īryābhāṣaiṣaṇādānanikṣepotsargāḥ samitayaḥ
Carefulness in walking, speaking, seeking alms, handling things, and disposal.
The five samitis translate ahiṃsā into moment-to-moment behaviour: look where you step, speak only what is needful, accept only faultless food, pick up and set down with attention, and dispose of waste where no life is harmed.
- 9.6
उत्तमक्षमामार्दवार्जवशौचसत्यसंयमतपस्त्यागाकिञ्चन्यब्रह्मचर्याणि धर्मः
uttamakṣamāmārdavārjavaśaucasatyasaṃyamatapastyāgākiñcanyabrahmacaryāṇi dharmaḥ
Supreme forbearance, modesty, straightforwardness, purity, truth, restraint, austerity, renunciation, non-possession and celibacy constitute virtue.
The daśa-lakṣaṇa dharma, celebrated annually for ten days. Each begins with 'uttama' — practised for its own sake, not for reputation or reward.
- 9.7
अनित्याशरणसंसारैकत्वान्यत्वाशुच्यास्रवसंवरनिर्जरालोकबोधिदुर्लभधर्मस्वाख्यातत्त्वानुचिन्तनमनुप्रेक्षाः
anityāśaraṇasaṃsāraikatvānyatvāśucyāsravasaṃvaranirjarālokabodhidurlabhadharmasvākhyātatattvānucintanamanuprekṣāḥ
Repeated reflection on impermanence, helplessness, transmigration, aloneness, separateness, impurity, influx, stoppage, shedding, the universe, the rarity of enlightenment, and the well-expounded truth — these are the reflections.
The twelve bhāvanās. 'Anucintana' means sustained, repeated dwelling — the same twelve are meant to be returned to daily until they colour perception itself.
- 9.8
मार्गाच्यवननिर्जरार्थं परिषोढव्याः परीषहाः
mārgācyavananirjarārthaṃ pariṣoḍhavyāḥ parīṣahāḥ
Hardships are to be endured so as not to fall from the path and to shed karma.
Two purposes: staying on the path, and actively wearing karma away. Enduring is not passive suffering — it is a technique with a stated outcome.
- 9.9
क्षुत्पिपासाशीतोष्णदंशमशकनाग्न्यारतिस्त्रीचर्यानिषद्याशय्याक्रोशवधयाचनालाभरोगतृणस्पर्शमलसत्कारपुरस्कारप्रज्ञाज्ञानादर्शनानि
kṣutpipāsāśītoṣṇadaṃśamaśakanāgnyāratistrīcaryāniṣadyāśayyākrośavadhayācanālābharogatṛṇasparśamalasatkārapuraskāraprajñājñānādarśanāni
Hunger, thirst, cold, heat, insect bites, nakedness, discontent, women, wandering, seating, resting, abuse, beating, begging, non-gain, illness, thorn-prick, dirt, honour, learning, ignorance and lack of faith.
Twenty-two hardships, spanning physical deprivation, social humiliation and — significantly — the intellectual hardships of both pride in learning and distress at one's ignorance.
- 9.10
सूक्ष्मसाम्परायच्छद्मस्थवीतरागयोश्चतुर्दश
sūkṣmasāmparāyacchadmasthavītarāgayoścaturdaśa
Fourteen occur to one in subtle passion and to the passionless but not yet omniscient.
As passion thins, fewer hardships can even arise — sexual and status-related ones drop away first, leaving only the physically unavoidable.
- 9.11
एकादश जिने
ekādaśa jine
Eleven occur even to the omniscient Jina.
Since the Jina has destroyed deluding karma, only the eleven hardships rooted in the body and environment — not those rooted in passion — can still physically arise, though they cause no distress.
- 9.12
बादरसंपराये सर्वे
bādarasaṃparāye sarve
All twenty-two can occur up to the stage of gross passion.
The full range of hardships is possible only while passion is still coarse; as one advances, whole categories of hardship become impossible before others do.
- 9.13
ज्ञानावरणे प्रज्ञाज्ञाने
jñānāvaraṇe prajñājñāne
Under knowledge-obscuring karma fall pride in learning and distress at ignorance.
Both the arrogance of the learned and the humiliation of the ignorant trace to the same karma — knowledge-obscuring — showing they are two faces of one attachment to knowing.
- 9.14
दर्शनमोहान्तराययोर्दर्शनालाभौ
darśanamohāntarāyayor darśanālābhau
Lack of faith and non-gain arise from faith-deluding and obstructive karma respectively.
Doubt about the teaching is traced to darśana-mohanīya; failure to obtain alms or requisites, however carefully sought, is traced to antarāya karma.
- 9.15
चारित्रमोहे नाग्न्यारतिस्त्रीनिषद्याक्रोशयाचनासत्कारपुरस्काराः
cāritramohe nāgnyāratistrīniṣadyākrośayācanāsatkārapuraskārāḥ
Nakedness, discontent, women, sitting, abuse, begging, and honour-or-dishonour fall under conduct-deluding karma.
These seven hardships strike directly at vows and self-image, so they are assigned to the karma that obscures right conduct rather than right knowledge or faith.
- 9.16
वेदनीये शेषाः
vedanīye śeṣāḥ
The remaining hardships fall under feeling-producing karma.
Hunger, thirst, cold, heat, insects, illness, thorns, dirt, wandering, resting and the rest are simple bodily sensations, so they are assigned to vedanīya karma.
- 9.17
एकादा भवति एकोनविंशतिः युगपत्
ekādā bhavati ekonaviṃśatiḥ yugapat
At most nineteen can occur simultaneously.
Certain pairs are mutually exclusive by nature — cold and heat, or sitting and wandering cannot both be experienced at once — so not all twenty-two ever arise together.
- 9.18
सामायिकच्छेदोपस्थाप्यपरिहारविशुद्धिसूक्ष्मसाम्परायययथाख्यातमिति चारित्रम्
sāmāyikacchedopasthāpyaparihāraviśuddhisūkṣmasāmparāyayathākhyātamiti cāritram
Conduct is: equanimity, re-initiation, purity through non-injury, subtle passion, and perfect conduct.
Five grades of conduct in ascending purity. Yathākhyāta — perfect conduct — appears only from the eleventh guṇasthāna, where passion is wholly gone.
- 9.19
अनशनावमौदर्यवृत्तिपरिसंख्यानरसपरित्यागविविक्तशय्यासनकायक्लेशा बाह्यं तपः
anaśanāvamaudaryavṛttiparisaṃkhyānarasaparityāgaviviktaśayyāsanakāyakleśā bāhyaṃ tapaḥ
Fasting, reduced eating, restricting the kinds of food sought, giving up delicacies, secluded lodging and mortification are external austerities.
Called external because they are visible and involve the body. They are preparatory: their purpose is to make the internal austerities possible, not to impress.
- 9.20
प्रायश्चित्तविनयवैयावृत्त्यस्वाध्यायव्युत्सर्गध्यानान्युत्तरम्
prāyaścittavinayavaiyāvṛttyasvādhyāyavyutsargadhyānānyuttaram
Expiation, reverence, service, study, relinquishment and meditation are the higher (internal) austerities.
The internal six are ranked higher precisely because they cannot be performed for display. Svādhyāya — self-study — and dhyāna are the two most emphasised for a student.
- 9.21
नवचतुर्दशपञ्चद्विभेदं यथाक्रमं प्राग्ध्यानात्
navacaturdaśapañcadvibhedaṃ yathākramaṃ prāgdhyānāt
Nine, four, ten, five and two are their subdivisions respectively, before meditation is treated.
A summary sūtra announcing how many kinds each of the first five internal austerities has, before dhyāna, the sixth, is taken up separately in what follows.
- 9.22
आलोचनप्रतिक्रमणतदुभयविवेकव्युत्सर्गतपश्छेदपरिहारोपस्थापनाः प्रायश्चित्तम्
ālocanapratikramaṇatadubhayavivekavyutsargatapaśchedaparihāropasthāpanāḥ prāyaścittam
Confession, repentance, both together, discrimination, dismissal, penance, demotion, temporary exclusion and reinstatement are the nine kinds of expiation.
Prāyaścitta is graded from a simple private confession up to full reinstatement after temporary expulsion, matched to the gravity of the lapse.
- 9.23
ज्ञानदर्शनचारित्रोपचाराः विनयः
jñānadarśanacāritropacāraḥ vinayaḥ
Reverence toward knowledge, faith, conduct and etiquette is the four-fold vinaya.
Reverence is not mere politeness but a disciplined attitude toward the very means of liberation — right knowledge, faith and conduct — plus proper deportment toward seniors.
- 9.24
आचार्योपाध्यायतपस्विशैक्षकग्लानगणकुलसंघसाधुसमनोज्ञानां वैयावृत्त्यम्
ācāryopādhyāyatapasviśaikṣakaglānagaṇakulasaṃghasādhusamanojñānāṃ vaiyāvṛttyam
Service is rendered to the head-preceptor, the teacher, the ascetic, the novice, the sick, the group, the lineage, the wider order, fellow monks and the like-minded.
Ten recipients of vaiyāvṛtya are named, ranging from the highest teacher down to the humble fellow-mendicant, making service comprehensive rather than selective.
- 9.25
वाचनापृच्छनानुप्रेक्षाम्नायधर्मोपदेशाः
vācanāpṛcchanānuprekṣāmnāyadharmopadeśāḥ
Study is: reading, questioning, reflecting, repeating and expounding.
A five-step study method, and a remarkably modern one — passive reading alone is only the first fifth of it. Teaching what you have learnt is listed as part of learning.
- 9.26
बाह्याभ्यन्तरोपध्योस्त्यागो व्युत्सर्गः
bāhyābhyantaropadhyostyāgo vyutsargaḥ
Relinquishment is the giving up of external possessions and internal attachments.
Vyutsarga has two objects: external things like the body's comforts, and internal things like anger and false notions — both must be let go for it to be complete.
- 9.27
उत्तमसंहननस्यैकाग्रचिन्तानिरोधो ध्यानम्
uttamasaṃhananasyaikāgracintānirodho dhyānam
Meditation is the concentration of thought on a single object, by one of excellent bone-structure.
Dhyāna is defined technically: the restraint of the mind's wandering onto one point. The physical qualification reflects the classical view that the highest meditation requires a specific bodily constitution.
- 9.28
आ मुहूर्तात्
ā muhūrtāt
It lasts up to one muhūrta.
Under forty-eight minutes for a single continuous act of concentration. Longer sessions are chains of successive dhyānas, not one unbroken one.
- 9.29
आर्तरौद्रधर्म्यशुक्लानि
ārtaraudradharmyaśuklāni
It is of four kinds: sorrowful, cruel, virtuous and pure.
A crucial and often-missed point: concentration itself is morally neutral. Brooding on loss (ārta) and dwelling on harm (raudra) are also dhyāna — and they bind karma heavily.
- 9.30
परे मोक्षहेतू
pare mokṣahetū
The last two are causes of liberation.
Only dharma-dhyāna and śukla-dhyāna liberate. Śukla-dhyāna's four stages carry the soul from the eighth guṇasthāna to the annihilation of all karma.
- 9.31
आर्तमविरतसम्यग्दृष्टीनाम्
ārtamaviratasamyagdṛṣṭīnām
Sorrowful meditation belongs to the undisciplined right-believer and below.
Ārta-dhyāna is not exclusive to the ignorant; even one with right faith who has not yet taken vows can fall into it, up to the sixth guṇasthāna at most.
- 9.32
आज्ञापायविपाकसंस्थानविचयाय धर्म्यम्
ājñāpāyavipākasaṃsthānavicayāya dharmyam
Virtuous meditation dwells on scriptural authority, the suffering of beings, the fruition of karma, and the form of the universe.
These four objects of dharma-dhyāna turn reflection outward to doctrine and cosmos as well as inward to karma's working, balancing intellectual and moral concern.
- 9.33
दध्यम् तु अप्रमत्तसंयतस्योपरि च
dharmyaṃ tv apramattasaṃyatasyopari ca
It belongs properly to the vigilant, self-controlled ascetic, and continues in modified form at the higher stages of suppressed or destroyed passion.
Dharma-dhyāna is first stabilised from the seventh guṇasthāna, where negligence has been overcome, and persists as passion is further thinned.
- 9.34
शुक्ले चाद्ये पूर्वविदः
śukle cādye pūrvavidaḥ
The first two pure meditations belong only to one who has mastered the Pūrva scriptures.
Pṛthaktva-vitarka and ekatva-vitarka śukla-dhyāna require the vast textual command of the now-lost Pūrvas, restricting them to advanced ancient ascetics.
- 9.35
परे केवलिनः
pare kevalinaḥ
The latter two pure meditations belong only to the omniscient.
Sūkṣma-kriyā-apratipātī and vyuparata-kriyā-nivṛtti occur only after kevala-jñāna has already arisen, in the last moments of embodied existence.
- 9.36
वितर्कः श्रुतम्
vitarkaḥ śrutam
Vitarka is scriptural knowledge applied as the object of contemplation.
In the first two śukla-dhyānas, the meditator's thought is anchored in a scriptural word or meaning held as the point of concentration.
- 9.37
विचारोऽर्थव्यञ्जनयोगसंक्रान्तिः
vicāro'rthavyañjanayogasaṃkrāntiḥ
Vicāra is the shifting of attention among meaning, word and activity.
The presence or absence of this shifting distinguishes the first śukla-dhyāna, where attention moves between object, expression and mode of activity, from the second, where it is stilled.
- 9.38
एकत्ववितर्कं अविचारं द्वितीयम्
ekatvavitarkaṃ avicāraṃ dvitīyam
The second is concentration on a single point, without shifting.
Ekatva-vitarka fixes on one word or meaning without oscillation, marking a deeper stability than the first, prithaktva-vitarka, stage.
- 9.39
पृथक्त्ववितर्कं सविचारं प्रथमम्
pṛthaktvavitarkaṃ savicāraṃ prathamam
The first pure meditation is concentration with plurality and with shifting.
Prithaktva-vitarka moves across several aspects of a single substance via scriptural knowledge, still allowing transitions between word, meaning and activity.
- 9.40
सूक्ष्मक्रियाऽप्रतिपाति तृतीयम्
sūkṣmakriyāpratipāti tṛtīyam
The third is meditation with subtle activity, from which there is no falling back.
Reserved for the omniscient nearing the end of embodiment, this stage involves only the subtlest bodily activity, such as breathing, and never regresses.
- 9.41
समुच्छिन्नक्रियाऽनिवृत्ति चरमम्
samucchinnakriyānivṛtti caramam
The fourth is meditation with all activity cut off, from which there is no turning back.
In this final, motionless stage all yogic activity ceases entirely; it lasts through the last moments before liberation, in the fourteenth guṇasthāna.
- 9.42
त्र्येककाययोगायोगानाम्
tryekakāyayogāyogānām
These last two belong respectively to one with three or one activity, and to one with none.
The third śukla-dhyāna occurs to a being still using mental, verbal and physical or only bodily activity; the fourth, to one who has stopped all activity whatsoever.
- 9.43
एकाश्रयेऽप्यपूर्ववत्
ekāśraye'py apūrvavat
Even resting on a single support, each higher stage is as fresh as a first attainment.
Though continuous with what came before, each stage of śukla-dhyāna brings the soul to unprecedented purity, never a mere repetition of the last.
- 9.44
चतुरन्तं व्युपरतक्रियानिवर्ति च ध्यानाच्चतुर्विधोपशान्तक्षीणकषाययोश्च
caturantaṃ vyuparatakriyānivarti ca dhyānāc caturvidhopaśāntakṣīṇakaṣāyayoś ca
The one whose activity has ceased attains the four-fold ending, and this follows dhyāna in those of suppressed or destroyed passion.
The chapter's dhyāna sequence closes by tying the highest meditations to the near-final guṇasthānas, where passion is suppressed or annihilated on the way to liberation.
- 9.45
सम्यग्दृष्टिश्रावकविरतानन्तवियोजकदर्शनमोहक्षपकोपशमकोपशान्तमोहक्षपकक्षीणमोहजिनाः क्रमशोऽसंख्येयगुणनिर्जराः
samyagdṛṣṭiśrāvakaviratānantaviyojakadarśanamohakṣapakopaśamakopaśāntamohakṣapakakṣīṇamohajināḥ kramaśo'saṃkhyeyaguṇanirjarāḥ
The right-believer, the layman, the ascetic, and successively higher stages up to the Jina, each shed innumerably more karma than the last.
A ladder of eleven spiritual grades with exponentially increasing shedding. It answers the student's practical question: does progress accelerate? Yes — enormously.
- 9.46
पुलाकबकुशकुशीलनिर्ग्रन्थस्नातका निर्ग्रन्थाः
pulākabakuśakuśīlanirgranthasnātakā nirgranthāḥ
The un-consolidated, the flawed, the passion-tinged, the utterly bondless, and the bathed-clean are the five grades of ascetics.
A closing fivefold ranking of monks by spiritual maturity, from the pulāka, whose austerity is still mixed with worldly motive, to the snātaka, one who has washed away all karma just before liberation.
- 9.47
तत्त्वार्थाधिगमोपायो निर्ग्रन्थानां प्रत्येकं संख्येयगुणाश्च
tattvārthādhigamopāyo nirgranthānāṃ pratyekaṃ saṃkhyeyaguṇāś ca
Among these bondless ascetics, each successive grade sheds karma many times more than the one before, as the means of comprehending reality matures.
The chapter's final word ties the whole ladder of nirgrantha grades back to its opening theme — comprehension of the tattvas is what drives ever-accelerating shedding of karma, until none remains.