A new look on Alayavijnanvaad

- Dr. Udai Narain Sinha

The more you grind sandalwood,
The greater is the fragrance,
The more you chew sugarcane,
Sweeter is the taste;
The more you heat gold,
The great is its brilliance;

Likewise trials and tribulation only enhance goodness in nobles’ Chitta towards the embodiment of love. Thus the more one loves one’s fellow beings the greater would be the bliss one enjoys and the more one loves others, The happier he would be. Therefore, if one wishes to be constantly happy, One must always love all. Love is the royal path to Buddha hood and the Nirvana. Therefore, the best way to attain Nirvana is to love all and serve all. This is the lesson that we learn from Alaya VijnanVada of the Mahayana school of Buddhism but this is the only lesson that the Buddha taught to the World initially to humanity through his sermons. In essence, Ahinsa or non-violence is the greatest Dharma of all but for it one has to purify the Chitta, because it is the only Alaya of all things animate or inanimate. This is all we learn from the Yoga-Vaasishtha-Maharamayana, a thirty-two thousand stanza’s work, which is Buddhist in inception but deals with all manner of topics(Keith A.B. “A History of Sanskrit Literature” Delhi 1976 pp. 479-480)

Now question rises what is Alaya VijnanVada and how it differs from basic conception of it as laid down by the Yoga Vaasishtha-Maharamayana and where it originated? In answer to the same we may infer the views of S.P. Bhattacharya

According to whom, Vijnanism started in North Eastern India, whose shadowy representation may be accepted in the Yoga Vaasishtha Maharamayana. (Bhattacharya S.P. Proceedings of the 3rd Oriental Conference Madras 1924 pp. 549; Pandeya Govind Chanda “Bauddha Dharma Ke Vikas Ka Itihas” Lucknow 1983 P. 420) Govind Chanda Pandeya believes that the Tathagat Dharma is the identical name of Alaya Vijnanism, whose imaginary shadow gives birth to the world. Everything is momentary because only Alaya is the fundamental to give birth to the World. Though it has easy and difficult foundations of seeds but it is not the atman or soul. By quoting Avidharma Sutra G.C. Pandeya states Alaya Vijnanism influences everyone’s birth cycle without being discontinued.(Pandeya P. 443) In reality this philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism relates the importance of Chitta. Now question rises what is the base that differs it from the description of the Yoga Vaasishtha Maharamayana? In answer to the same we may clearly accept that although the basic concept of the description of Vaasishtha Ji is based upon Chitta and he describes that all what we see or happens is only the moment of Chitta but then he is not ready to discard the existence of very Soul.(Sinha Udai Narain “Yoga Vaasishtha Maharamayana Ka Rachana Kaal” Ph-d thesis awarded in 1998 from the Department of Ancient Indian History and Archaeology, Lucknow University, Lucknow P. 54) According to the Vijnanism Shunyata or vacume is a conception of thing, which contains sashrava beeja that has pravratti dharma and also anashrava beeja consisted with cause of Nivritti Dharma. Whatever is there it is the Chitta and even the World is Chitta. This chitta is consisted with Ragadi Abhas and Shraddhadi Abhas. The Yoga Vasishtha Maharamayana explains that the pure person never becomes deviated through the surroundings of Vasana, because his chitta is purified and is without raga and dvesha(Kshubdhair yuga paravartair Vasana shrankhalobhita
Mahashani nipatai shrvna bhagnaaa Buddha dheerata” Yvmr. Via. 7.37 ns press Mumbai. “Sarveshaam Bhoot jatanam sansarvyvaharinam,

Prathamo sau pratispandshrivitta deha svatodaya” 3.3.14 “Asmat poorvat pratispandad nanyaita tasvaroopiniIyam pravishrata srishtiah spandasrishtirivanilat” Ibid 15 Meaning thereby fools surrounded with vasana never come out of it in the cycle of Yugas, because they are them selves mixed and mingled with it. The chitta matra bodied rising of Ahankara feelings is the first Pratispanda. This first pratispanda i.e. Uttapatti and Gati or movement create this Srishti, which is different to its causation of its own Upadana like the Srishti of Vayyu’s Pratispand creating another Vayyu.

During the discourse of Ravana with Mahamata, Ravana asks about Alaya Vijnana principle as is described in second parivarta of Lank avatar Sutra, whereupon Mahamata i.e. Bodhisattva dispels his doubts and tells him about the purification of Chitta.(Lank avatar Sutra II. English Translation Sujuki D.T. London 1932) According to Acharya Narendra Deva, Alaya is the name indicating to the place where all seeds are placed collectively, meaning thereby all the religions are collectively placed in it without any distinction or it is mixed and mingled in all the religions, therefore it is known as Alaya or sthirmati. Chinese traveller Yuan Chvang feels that religions create seeds in Alaya i.e. in Chitta. In this way these create a place of collations in Alaya Vijnana and thereafter they are collected in it. In this way Alaya Vijnana stands for spirit and Indriya in other sects but in Mahayana Buddhism it is Chitta. It is also Karma Svabhava or nature of action. So, it is also known as vipaka Vijnana. Chinese philosopher is of the opinion that it is the creator of power in the seeds collected in it.(Narendra Deva Acharya Bauddha Dharma Darshan, Patana 1956 P. 437-39)
Alaya Vijnana takes birth with another Vijnana. It is the science of Manas or Chitta. (Acharya Op.Cit. P. 473)

“Karmano Vasana graah dvai vasanaya saha ksheene poorva vipakenyad vipakam janayanti tat” (Acharya N.D. Op.Cit P. 481)

The above example of Vasubandhu’s Karika No. 19 is cited by Yuan Chvang and he explains that after the downfall of poorva vipaka, creates the Vasana of the karma or action and the Vasana of grahadvai and thereby it also creates other vipakas or feelings or action senses or senses.

Actually, the term Vipaka (Sanskrit and Pali) is a denotative Buddhist technical term meaning the result of karma (Pali kamma), or intentional actions.

In Buddhist belief, the law of kamma-vipaka is of great importance. In a discourse
(A.N. VI.63 Nibbedhika Sutta PTS. London) the Buddha said “Intention, monks, is kamma I say. Having willed, one acts through body, speech and mind”.

Vipaka is the fruition of Kamma
= "According to the seed that’s sown,
= So is the fruit you reap there from,
= Doer of good will gather good,
= Doer of evil, evil reaps,
= Down is the seed and thou shalt taste The fruit thereof."
= Karma is action, and Vipaka, fruit or result, is its reaction.

Just as every object is accompanied by a shadow, even so every volitional activity is inevitably accompanied by its due effect. Karma is like potential seed: Vipaka could be likened to the fruit arising from the tree – the effect or result. Anisamsa and Adinaya are the leaves, flowers and so forth that correspond to external differences such as health, sickness and poverty – these are inevitable consequences, which happen at the same time. Strictly speaking, both Karma and Vipaka pertain to the mind.

As Karma may be good or bad, so may Vipaka, - the fruit – is good or bad. As Karma is mental so Vipaka is mental (of the mind). It is experienced as happiness, bliss, unhappiness or misery, according to the nature of the Karma seed. Anisamsa are the concomitant advantages – material things such as prosperity,health and longevity. When Vipaka’s concomitant material things are disadvantageous, they are known as Adinaya, full of wretchedness, and appear as poverty, ugliness, disease, short life-span and so forth.

As we sow, we reap somewhere and sometime, in his life or in a future birth. What we reap today is what we have sown either in the present or in the past.

The Samyutta Nikaya states:

Karma is the law of moral causation. The theory of Karma is a fundamental doctrine in Buddhism. This belief was prevalent in India before the advent of the Buddha. Nevertheless, it was the Buddha who explained and formulated this doctrine in the complete form in which we have it today.

“What is the cause of the inequality that exists among mankind? Why should one person be brought up in the lap of luxury, endowed with fine mental, moral and physical qualities, and another in absolute poverty, steeped in misery? Why should one person be a mental prodigy, and another an idiot? Why should one person be born with saintly characteristics and another with criminal tendencies? Why should some be linguistic, artistic, mathematically inclined, or musical from the very cradle? Why should others be congenitally blind, deaf, or deformed? Why should some be blessed, and others cursed from their births?”

Either this inequality of mankind has a cause, or it is purely accidental. No sensible person would think of attributing this unevenness, this inequality, and this diversity to blind chance or pure accident.

In this world nothing happens to a person that he does not for some reason or other deserve. Usually, men of ordinary intellect cannot comprehend the actual reason or reasons. The definite invisible cause or causes of the visible effect is not necessarily confined to the present life, they may be traced to a proximate or remote past birth.

According to Buddhism, this inequality is due not only to heredity, environment, "nature and nurture", but also to Karma. In other words, it is the result of our own past actions and our own present doings. We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness and misery. We create our own Heaven. We create our own Hell. We are the architects of our own fate.

Perplexed by the seemingly inexplicable, apparent disparity that existed among humanity, a young truth-seeker approached the Buddha and questioned him regarding this intricate problem of inequality:

"What is the cause, what is the reason, O Lord," questioned he, "that we find amongst mankind the short-lived and long-lived, the healthy and the diseased, the ugly and beautiful, those lacking influence and the powerful, the poor and the rich, the low-born and the high-born, and the ignorant and the wise?"

The Buddha’s reply was:

"All living beings have actions (Karma) as their own, their inheritance, their congenital cause, their kinsman, their refuge. It is Karma that differentiates beings into low and high states."

Certainly we are born with hereditary characteristics. At the same time we possess certain innate abilities that science cannot adequately account for. To our parents we are indebted for the gross sperm and ovum that form the nucleus of this so -called being. They remain dormant within each parent until this potential germinal compound is vitalised by the karmic energy needed for the production of the foetus. Karma is therefore the indispensable conceptive cause of this being.

The accumulated karmic tendencies, inherited in the course of previous lives, at times play a far greater role than the hereditary parental cells and genes in the formation of both physical and mental characteristics.

The Buddha, for instance, inherited, like every other person, the reproductive cells and genes from his parents. But physically, morally and intellectually He was incomparable to him in his long line of Royal ancestors. In the Buddha’s own words, he belonged not to the Royal lineage, certainly a superman, an extraordinary creation of his own Karma.

Karma does not necessarily mean past actions. It embraces both past and present deeds. Hence in one sense, we are the result of what we were; we will be the result of what we are. In another sense, it should be added, we are not totally the result of what we were; we will not absolutely be the result of what we are. The present is no doubt the offspring of the past and is the present of the future, but the present is not always a true index of either the past or the future; so complex is the working of Karma.

Down is the seed and thou shalt taste The fruit thereof."

Karma is a law in itself, which operates in its own field without the intervention of any external, independent ruling agency.

Happiness and misery, which are the common lot of humanity, are the inevitable effects of causes. From a Buddhist point of view, they are not rewards and punishments, assigned by a supernatural, omniscient ruling power to a soul that has done good or evil.

Buddhism, which emphatically denies such an Almighty, All merciful God-Creator and an arbitrarily created immortal soul, believes in natural law and justice which cannot be suspended by either an Almighty God or an All-compassionate Buddha. According to this natural law, acts bear their own rewards and punishments to the individual doer whether human justice finds out or not.

There are some who criticise thus: "So, you Buddhists, too, administer capitalistic opium to the people, saying: "You are born poor in this life on account of your past evil karma. He is born rich on account of his good Karma. So, be satisfied with your humble lot; but do good to be rich in your next life. You are being oppressed now because of your past evil Karma. There is your destiny. Be humble and bear your sufferings patiently. Do good now. You can be certain of a better and happier life after death."

The Buddhist doctrine of Karma does not expound such ridiculous fatalistic views. Nor does it vindicate a postmortem justice. The All-Merciful Buddha, who had no ulterior selfish motives, did not teach this law of Karma to protect the rich and comfort the poor by promising illusory happiness in an after-life.

While we are born to a state created by ourselves, yet by our own self-directed efforts there is every possibility for us to create new, favourable environments even here and now. Not only individually, but also, collectively, we are at liberty to create fresh Karma that leads either towards our progress or downfall in this very life.

According to the Buddhist doctrine of Karma, one is not always compelled by an ‘iron necessity’, for Karma is neither fate, nor predestination imposed upon us by some mysterious unknown power to which we must helplessly submit ourselves. It is one’s own doing reacting on oneself, and so one has the possibility to divert the course of one’s Karma to some extent. How far one diverts it depends on oneself.

Is one bound to reap all that one has sown in just proportion?

The Buddha provides an answer:

"If anyone says that a man or woman must reap in this life according to his present deeds, in that case there is no religious life, nor is an opportunity afforded for the entire extinction of sorrow. But if anyone says that what a man or woman reaps in this and future lives accords with his or her deeds present and past, in that case there is a religious life, and an opportunity is afforded for the entire extinction of a sorrow."

Buddhists believe that Vipaka can be felt even after death. There are Kushala and Akushala Vipaka i.e. that we gain through good action and bad deeds. Hence, it is in the interest of the safety of humankind that we should sow such seeds that give us good fruits. It is here that we need to show our faith in Buddha, Sangha and Dhamma. These three maxims imply that firstly one must sharpen the intellect and the capacity of ceasing mirage for what we have naught, secondly intelligence has to be used for the service of society under discipline and moral code, thirdly service must be based on Dhamma or righteousness but these may be done through the purification of Chitta and thus awakening the Chetana or consciousness would automatically generate amongst the human beings that there shall be development of never harming any living creature in whatsoever condition the same is. helping ever hurting never but continuously employed in search of the mystery of Universe by adopting Ahinsa Parmo Dharma and then thereafter there shall be peace and purification of all Chittas- This is the essence of Alaya VijnanVada and this is the essence of the basic teachings of Lord Buddha.