Samaysar (समयसार)
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The author of this book, "Acharya Kund Kund", is a major figure in the ancient history of the Jain tradition. He is found in Wikipedia as Acharya Kundakunda. His name is rendered variously with or without the a's. Little is known about him, when, where, etc, but there is some discussion and a survey of the speculation about him in a post on Oshoganga's Hindi blog. That page is about this book Samyasar, Acharya's major work, plus what Osho has said about it.
Osho has not actually said much about either Kund Kund or his book. The totality of it is a few paragraphs from chapter 3 of Books I Have Loved, reproduced below:
- Fourth: Kundkunda's SAMAYASAR. I have never spoken about it. I decided to many times but always dropped the idea. This is one of the greatest books the Jainas have produced, but it is very mathematical; that's why I have always dropped it. I love poetry. If it was poetic I would have spoken on it. I have even spoken on unenlightened poets, but not on even enlightened mathematicians and logicians. Mathematics is so dry. Logic is a desert.
- Perhaps he is around here among my sannyasins... but he cannot be. Kundkunda was an enlightened master, he cannot be born again. His book is beautiful, I can only say that much. I will not say anything more because it is mathematical.... Mathematics too has its beauty, its rhythm, that's why I appreciate it. It has its own truth but it is very limited, and very right-handed.
- SAMAYASAR means the essence. If by chance you ever come across Kundkunda's SAMAYASAR, then please never hold it in your left hand. Keep it in the right hand. It is a right-hand book, right in every way. That is why I have declined up till now to speak about it. It is so right that I feel a little aversion to it -- of course with tears in my eyes, because I know the beauty of the man who wrote it. I love Kundkunda, and I hate from my guts his mathematical expression.
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समयसार
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