Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c7.9

v1.c7.9

This teacher held the view that a person earns neither merit by pious acts such as gifts, sacrifices or austerities nor demerit by impious acts such as killing, stealing, lying and so forth. In other words, he taught *Akiriya-vāda* (theory of non-action), in Dr. Barua’s words “passivity of soul.” Soul, according to this teacher, is inactive, and it is the body which acts; hence, soul remains unaffected by the results of good or bad deeds. This teaching is allied to that of Sāṅkhya as has been pointed out by the Jaina commentator Silāṅka, but it would be wide of the mark if we say Kassapa’s teaching is the same as that of Sāṅkhya, for the latter school of philosophy does not teach *akiriya* though it holds that *Puruṣa* is only an onlooker, an inactive agent, the functioning factor being the *Prakṛti*. It does not however deny the doctrine of karman and the theory of transmigration.¹ The Vedantic or the Mādhyamika view of the world also makes a person *niṣkriya*, for it teaches that the world in its diversity does not exist; hence all actions, a person is supposed to perform, are purely imaginary. Though it is risky to identify Pūraṇa’s teachings with those of Vedānta or Mādhyamika or Sāṅkhya, there is no reason why his teachings should be condemned as leading to moral depravity as the *Majjhima Nikāya*² wants to establish. The suggestion of Dr. Barua on the *Digha* that Pūraṇa’s teaching should be classified as adhiccasamuppanikavāda is more appropriate, i.e., things happen fortuitously without any cause or condition,¹ and have nothing to do with ‘soul’.