Jain Journal 1967 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/520008/1

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Oct 1967 A QUARTERLY ON JAINOLOGY JAIN BHAWAN PUBLICATION

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Ourselves 51 Ahimsa 53 Nathmal Tantia Verses 58 Cidananda The Jaina as a Jina 61 Rishabhchand Kapila (short story) 65 The Original Traits of Jainism 68 -Nigoda Hermann Jacobi Gleanings 74 The Key of Knowledge (Digest) 76 Champat Rai Jain Jaina Community (Review) 90 Books on Jainology 96 Kartik Mahotsava 51 (Coloured Painting)

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BOOK REVIEW JAINA COMMUNITY-A Social Survey : V. A. Sangave : Popular Book Depot, Bombay : 1959 : Pp. xviii-+-480 : Price Rs. 25.00. In this learned work, the author deals with the Jainas of all denominations constituting a community and characterised by a selfobliviousness which may be traced only among very few people on earth. They are not only oblivious of their philosophy and religion but also of their history somuch so that the Jainas in Bengal, Mysore or Tamilnad are mutually as alien to each other as the Patagonians and the Eskimos. But despite this self-obliviousness and despite the fact that the Jainas constitute a small community, though well-dispersed all over India, even to her remotest regions, they have, in the words of the author, "contributed a great deal to the development of art and architecture, logic and philosophy, languages and literature, education and learning, charitable and public institutions and political, material and spiritual welfare of the people of different regions of India. Apart from these contributions, ... after the decline of Buddhism in India, the Jainas remained as the only representatives of sramana culture in India." Of such an interesting people, it is important that there are more and more studies brought out dealing with its social and institutional aspects. In this field indeed Dr. Sangave is no pioneer but the fact remains that the author has dealt with his subject in a more comprehensive manner than many of his fore-runners. If, in so doing, he has touched on certain points or has elaborated certain others in a manner and to an extent not entirely relevant to his subject, these have been so organically woven with the text that they would hardly have the look of interpolations, still less of extraneous materials. To illustrate, though primarily intended to be a social survey, the book has a very rich and comprehensive chapter on Jaina ethics which also includes Jaina superstitions, Jaina holy places and Jaina institutions. The work is based on factual information which may be called first-hand. The author had prepared a very comprehensive questionnaire including 50 questions and covering all aspects of the Jaina so which he had widely circulated among the leading Jainas all over India and on the basis of the outcome he prepared a working model which

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OCTOBER, 1967 is Chapter VI of this book. It is interesting to note that the first six questions were of a general character about the persons answering the questions. Question numbers 7-28 dealt with the social institutions of caste and marriage. The next five questions were concerned with the institution of family. The remaining questions sought information about some miscellaneous social customs and manners as well as individual opinions on certain topics of social interest. The task has by no means been easy, since the information on social life and institutions in Jaina literature has been very scanty. This is indeed the outcome of the Jaina doctrines which lay almost exclusive emphasis on the things of the soul. Latest efforts to fill up the gap has not gone very far for which the responsibility must be shared by the Jainas too. Apart from the fact that the Jainas are a small community, scattered all over India, even in the remotest villages, many of them, because of numerical insignificance, have considered themselves to be Hindus and only of late they are slowly becoming conscious of their speciality. From this standpoint, even Dr. Sangave himself is handicapped, since his analysis could be based on information given by a limited number of people to whom his questionnaire could reach. The work is laudable as a pioneering work but covers only a small portion of the gap and needs a large number of follow-up in different areas by people who may be qualified for the purpose. Even in this limited survery, the author could trace 30 castes out of 154 replies and these are almost watertight compartments, there being not only no inter-marriage but even no inter-dining. Although in future these divisions may disappear, upto this time, these have weakened rather than strengthened the position of this small community. The survey reveals that the caste system has influenced their charitable institutions. The author draws attention to an important institution among the Digambaras called Bhattarakas which is the outcome of their continuous social and religious dis-integration in the medieval period. These are a sort of intermediaries between the ascetics and lay followers. As to religious disabilities, unlike among the Hindus, they are practically non-existent among the Svetambaras and are few amongst the Digambaras. As already noted, the Jainas are the most migrant people in India and perhaps the most adaptable and yet, as the author notes, "they still maintain their connections with their native places." The Jainas are largely oblivious of their own sanskaras and they do not possess a common language of their own. A number of sanskaras are often performed according to the Hindu way, though in recent years the Jainas are trying to take a look-back to the mode of their own sacraments, particularly during a marriage ceremony and death. But the

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JAIN JOURNAL most interesting fact is that the Jainas, though a small community, say, like the Parsis, do not have a lingua franca, their medium of expression and communication being the language of the locality where they reside. As to the wearing of the sacred thread, largely a privilege of the Hindu Brahmins, the practice prevails among the Digambaras but not at all among the Svetambaras. Another characteristic difference between the two sects, as observed by the author, is that while the Svetambaras make a wide use of priesthood, mostly a category of Brahmins who are non-Jainas themselves, the Digambaras largely carry on without any priesthood. And finally in the working model, the author rightly recognises that in view of the basic difference between the religious philosophy of the Jainas and that of the non-Jainas, "the Jaina way of life automatically becomes separate from other ways of life." Leaving aside the working model, the arrangement of the rest of the book is as follows. Chapter one gives the demographic data of the Jaina Community while chapters two and three discuss religious and social divisions respectively. The subject-matter of chapter four is marriage and position of women. Chapter five considers Jaina ethics and miscellaneous customs and manners, including their food and drink, dress and ornaments, language and literature and Jaina institutions. Chapter seven gives a retrospect, discussing the historical background, the achievements of the Jainas, the reasons of their survival, causes of decline of Jainism, present-day problems and the way out. In the demographic survey, the most startling fact revealed is that while the population of India is increasing, the Jaina popultion, like perhaps the French in Europe, is steadily diminishing, and if the downtrend persists unchecked, it "will undoubtedly result in effacing the Jaina community from the surface of the earth, in not too distant a future." Another demographic characteristic revealed is the dominance of Jaina population in Bombay and Gujarat where muslim population is insignificant, its comparative insignificance in Uttar Pradesh where the muslim population is large and its virtual non-existence in Madras, and more significantly in Mysore where "now only the temples and colossal statues of Gommetesvara bear witness to its popularity." The antiquity of Jainism as a religion is still a matter of conjecture but now there is hardly any doubt that Parsva, the 23rd Tirthankara, lived in the 8th century B.C., while Mahavira was the senior contemporary of Buddha. The subsequent history of the Jaina Church is full of schisms, at least one of them occurring in 83 A.D. which gave rise to the Digambara Sect being the most significant. These two sects are

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OCTOBER, 1967 divided in several sects each and there are then the various gacchas, ganas, etc., etc., making the list most formidable, perhaps shameful, for a small community. Yet these differences do not relate to the fundamentals; they are very superficial, about details only. And during the long course of history of Jainism in India, no serious effort has ever been made to consolidate the various denominations into one. During these centuries, there have been outstanding Jaina scholars no doubt; but they have rarely bothered about the unification of the Jaina church its organisation further disintegrating into newer subsections with each scholar. 93 The division of the Jaina church is reflected in the Jaina social organisation. Although the Jaina religion is not interested in dividing the society into classes, during the days of Parsva and Mahavira, the social division of the Jainas into four classes was recognised, as it was among the Hindus, but unlike the Hindus, the Jainas based these distinctions on activities and not on birth. Besides, they gave full freedom to one and all including women and the sudras, to observe religious practices and admitted them into their religious order. In so doing, the Jainas proved to be more catholic and democratic. In later period, of course, the number of castes and sub-castes multiplied with a baffling speed and these even lost affinity as between different parts of the country. The Jaina society has now its segmental division; it has its hierarchy, its restrictions on feeding and social intercourse, its disabilities and privileges. In these matters, the influence of the local Hindu community has been highly significant. Considering the institution of marriage, Sangave draws attention to the difference between the Hindus and the Jainas in this respect. "In Hinduism there is a direct connection between marriage and religion. In Jainism, however, there is an indirect connection between marriage, like any other custom, and religion. For the Jainas the ultimate object in life is the attainment of moksa, i.e., liberation of the soul from wordly bondage. The best way, according to Jainism, to achieve this aim is to perform right action along with right faith and right knowledge. The right action includes proper channelising of sexual practices with a view to lead an useful life which serves as a stepping stone for getting salvation." Thus marriage is not a religious ceremony; it is a civil contract more or less. In the beginning the Jaina community observed full freedom regarding the choice of partners, even the non-Jainas being considered suitable for the purpose. But later, as in the Hindu community, new rules were prepared to suit the changing conditions, the first to be discarded for the purpose being

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JAIN JOURNAL the sudras. Later, endogamy penetrated into the Jaina society and took four forms, viz., caste or sub-caste endogamy, religious or sectional endogamy, place or local endogamy and factional or group endogamy. Dissolution of wedlock too is prescribed under certain circumstances. The women in the Jaina society occupied a more dignified position than perhaps women in Hindu society. To quote the author, "... so far as social and political position of woman was concerned, no material change occured among Jaina women as compared with their Hindu sisters. As regards religious position of women we can say with confidence that a yeoman service was rendered by Jaina acaryas towards the suffering half of humanity by declaring open to it all portals of the supreme spiritual domain and admitting it equally with the other half to the religious order for asceticism. In the sphere of law as well, they made definite contribution to the amelioration of the intolerable lot of the bereaved widows who must have found some solace in the precepts of Jaina faith which gave them, to a certain extent, a place of honoured self-respect." The author starts chapter five with the fundamental principles of Jainism and discusses Jaina philosophy, the theory of karma, the way of salvation, Jaina ethics, etc., which need not be recounted here. One of the misconceptions current about Jaina, perhaps, Indian, ethi that it neglects the social element while giving the pride of place to the individual. While the latter assertion may be somewhat correct, the author rightly stresses, the former is not. For the Jaina ethics took pains to provide for the welfare of both the society and the individual. In the Jaina four-fold order, the laity has as much a place of honour as the recluse. Even all the Tirthankaras, whom the Jainas worship, did lead a social life and attained salvation in the end. The aut goes further to add that "Jaina ethics embraces not only followers of Jainism but in a true sense all living beings. It is obvious that Jaina ethics tries to regulate the mutual relations of human beings, ..." In order to make their rules of conduct practicable, the Jainas alone have prescribed five great vows in two editions, the mahavratas for the ascetics and the anuvratas for the common folks, Jaina and non-Jaina alike. In other words, in order to practice these codes, none need become a Jaina by conversion ; one can follow these within the bounds of his own faith. The author adds details about Jaina worship, which is inherently the worship of the Liberated souls and not that of a transcendental being. This indeed is a unique approach which must have its inner strength because of which it could survive, despite the severest onslaughts of Hinduism. But for this inner strength, a small community like the Jainas would have been totally obliterated from history. The Jainas are most

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OCTOBER, 1967 well-known for their fasts which often run for days and weeks without a break, and the annual fasting during the Paryusana is followed by universal greeting of forgiveness for unpleasant deeds done, thought or said by body, mind or tongue. 95 It is indeed a marvel that a small community like the Jainas who are the representatives of the sramana culture has survived through the ravages of time. The author attributes this to several factors of which the most important perhaps is the excellent organisation of the community. For this, H. Jacobi has paid eloquent tributes to it in the following words, "It cannot be doubted that this close union between laymen and monks brought about by the similarity of their religious duties, differing not in kind, but in degree, has enabled Jainism to avoid fundamental changes within, and to resist dangers from without for more than two thousand years, while Buddhism, being less exacting as regards the laymen, underwent the most extraordinary evolutions and finally disappeared in the country of its origin." This however should not give impression that the Jaina community lies on a bed of roses. From outside, the Jaina community had to survive against the attacks by people belonging to the Vedic order; from inside the community lost its strength by the growth of too many castes and subcastes. "Naturally, the castes have fostered separatist tendencies, have created cultural gulfs between the castes and have stood in the way of social unity in the Jaina community." And the author suggests that if the Jainas are to flourish as a community, for which there is no reason why they should not, they must uproot the factors that generate caste-consciousness forthwith. This indeed may not be a very easy job; and yet there is no escape from it either. -H. Srimal

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Books on Jainology BOOL CHAND, Jainism in Indian History (Bulletin No. 2), Jaina Cultural Research Society, Varanasi, 1951. Pages 10. Price 37 Paise. Considers the role of Jainism in the propagation of Hindu Culture in India and abroad. DEO, SHANTARAM BHALCHANDRA, Jaina Monastic Jurisprudence, Jaina Cultural Research Society, Varanasi, 1960. Pages 87. Price Rs. 3.00. Chapter I-The Background to Monastic Jurisprudence. Starts with a survey of Jaina research, then discusses source texts, the spirit of monastic rules and meaning of transgressions and exceptions. Chapter II The Custodians of Monastic Discipline. It discusses the herarchy, the problems of seniority and succession and the units or Church groups. Chapter III-Laws of Jurisprudence and their Working. Discusses ten prayascittas with their implementation, Laws of Jurisprudence for Nuns, its salient features and gives a comparison with Buddhist Jurisprudence. Chapter IV-Transgressions and Punishments. Contains a select bibliography and index. JAIN, JYOTI PRASAD, Jainism the Oldest Living Religion (Sanmati Publication No. 5), Jaina Cultural Research Society, Varanasi, 1951. Pages ii+62. Price Rs. 1.50. Tries to remove some misconception regarding Jainism and prove that it is an absolutely independent religion and is older than Vedic culture itself. SANGHAVI, SUKHLAL, Pacifism and Jainism (Bulletin No. 25), Jaina Cultural Research Society, Varanasi, 1950. Pages 21. Price 50 Paise. The role that Jainism can play in the realisation of the aims and objects of pacifism is considered. SCHUBRING, WALTHER, The Religion of the Jainas (Calcutta Sanskrit College Research Series No. Lii), translated from the German by Dr. Amulya Chandra Sen and T. C. Burke, Sanskrit College, 1966. Pages x+43. Price Rs. 7.00.

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OCTOBER, 1967 Being an essay which appeared in a German Encyclopedia on the Religions of the World, entitled "Religionen der Menschheit" it briefly gives a historical summary of the Jaina Sect with its literature and religion. 97 SHAH, UMAKANT PREMANAND, Studies in Jaina Art, Jaina Cultural Research Society, Varanasi, 1955. Pages 166. Price Rs. 10.00. Chapter I attempts a critical survey of the Jaina art in North India, i.e., in the regions north of the Vindhyas. Chapter II is on symbol worship in Jainism. First, the growth of the conception of the word caitya as found in Vedic, Buddhist and Jaina tradition is reviewed and then the meaning and spread of the worship of the stupa, stambha, the caitya-vrkasa, ayagapata, samavasarana, siddhacakra, svapna, astamangala, sthapana, etc. as also of Astapada, Sammeta-sikhara, Panca-meru, Nandisvara-dvipa, etc. are discussed. Besides it contains a note on stupa, samavasarana and ziggurat, bibliography, index and 36 art plates. RI, VIJAYARAMCHANDRA, The Ideal of Culture in the Ramayana, translated by Chunilal Vrajlal Mody, Bombay Shroffs Association, Bombay, 1965. Vol. I-The Three Stages of Yoga. Pages xviii+235. Price Rs. 5.00. First of the four volumes of the sermons of his Holiness Sri Vijaya Ramachandra Suri on the Ideal of Culture in the Ramayana. The subject matter of the Ramayana is contained in volumes III and IV. In order that the reader may follow with benefit and assess the exposition, in its true perspective sermons collected in Volumes I and II are on the three stages of yoga and on the virtues the acquisition of which brings worthiness for the path of yoga of any of the three stages. In the present volume it is stated what yoga is. It is the art of culture that sublimates the soul to the state of salvation which is the highest end of human life. Yoga is classified into three stages. The first stage describes yoga of saintly life which implies the relinquishment of all sensual pleasures and possessions. The second deals with yoga of the householder's life, wherein one has to renounce sensual pleasures and possessions according to one's capacity. The third treats of yoga of right faith wherein the aspirant has to possess the unswerving conviction that human life is exclusively meant for saintliness.

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AHIMSA Ahimsa, samyama, and tapas are the three essential constituents of dharma, according to Jainism. Dharma leads the soul towards moksa by disentangling it from the karmic veils and purifying it of its passions and delusions. Of the three constituents, ahimsa is the most basic, and samyama and tapas are the corollaries of it. The whole spiritual code is determined by ahimsa which is the criterion and the ground of the latters' validity. In moments of moral crisis as to whether one should perform an act or not, the course of action, according to Jainism, should be determined by the criterion of ahimsa. NATHMAL TANTIA The nature of a religion or spiritual discipline-dharma, as we call it is determined by the ends that are sought to be achieved by it. The most fundamental determinant is however the philosophy of life to which a particular discipline is committed. Jainism believes in the reality of individual souls, each responsible for its own position in the hierarchy of life. The sub-human life thrives by himsa, and the necessity of himsa is felt even by human beings under adverse circumstances. But none has accepted himsa as the law of the Spirit. Jainism being primarily a spiritual discipline extends the scope of ahimsa to all walks of life and is prepared to face any consequence in order to be able to observe the law. So long as the soul is entangled in the matter and tempted to acquire good things of the world and remove obstacles that stand in the way by violence, it indulges in sinful activities. The delusion about values and the passions of attachment and aversion are rampant and the achievement of selfish ends is the only objective of life. The communal, social, national and such other interests are accepted as the criteria of action, and the struggle is endless, accentuated by victories and defeats. But Jainism insists on detachment from the struggle as far as possible, allowing only the unavoidable minimum for the sake of self-preservation and preservation of the intrinsic values of spiritual life. Enmity cannot uproot enmity. Violence ultimately realises its suicidal nature. A good end cannot be reached by a bad means. Sometimes Jainism is maligned as a doctrine attaching too much importance to the external act, ignoring the importance of the motive

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JAIN JOURNAL and the intention behind it. But it is not true. An act is considered himsa only if it is perpetrated under the influence of pramada-pramattayogat pranavyaparopanam himsa. A person is pramatta when there is the rising of pramada (i.e., kasayas viz., anger, pride, deceit and greed) in him. If in this state of rise of passions, the soul indulges in taking away the life of any living being, this is an act of himsa. Himsa is adharma becauses it causes pain to the creature killed-sa pranino dukhahetutvad adharmah. Of course, the causing of pain is not the absolute criterion. A surgeon causes pain to the patient when treating diseases by surgery. But surgery is not an act of violence, even if it proves fatal. Visesavasyakabhasya says: ahanamto vi hu himso dutthattanao mao abhimaro yva bahimto na vi himso suddhattanao jaha vijjo (1764) A hunter on account of his defiled state of mind is considered a murderer, even though he has not actually committed any murder ; but a surgeon, on account of his undefiled and pure condition of mind, is not regarded as a cruel person, even though the patient may feel pain or even die. The presence of passions is the determining factor as to whether an act is himsa or not. Suppose a person is extremely careful for avoiding injury to life, his mind being saturated with compassion for all living beings. Now if inspite of his freedom from passions and extreme caution and carefulness, he chances to tread upon an insect and injure it, that is not an act of violence. Numerous citations from the Jaina Agamas and other authoritative texts will bear out the validity of this contention. Thus in the Dasavaikalika Sutra we have : jayam care jayam citthe jayamase jayam saye jayam bhumjanto bhasamto pavakammam na bandhai (I.IV.8) One should walk, stand, sit and sleep self-controlled. A person eating and speaking self-controlled does not bind sinful karman. One may happen to take away life and yet be free from the sin of killing-viyojayati casubhir na ca vadhena samyujyate (SS, VII. 14). There are also cases where actually injury to life is not done at all, but even then these may be cases of himsa. A soul under the sway of passions kills itself by itself in advance, though other creatures may or may not be killed in the sequel : svayam evatmanatmanam hinastyatma pramadavan purvam pranyantaranam tu pascat syad va na va vadhah (SS, VII. 13.)

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OCTOBER, 1967 These and such other quotations, which are numerous, prove beyond doubt that Jainism assigns due importance to the motive and the intention. Of course, it is not always easy to decide between an act of sin and an act which is innocuous. In imperfect states of the soul, covered by karmic veils, good and evil are inextricably mixed up. Sometime the intention is good, but the act is performed under the sway of passions. The mixing up of the good will and the passionate feelings is a commonplace happening which can seldom be avoided and their subtlety and fineness elude the understanding. The concurrence of contradictory psychical attitudes as latent and patent forces at the same moment is accepted in Jainism. So what appears externally is not the complete picture of an act. Sometimes what appears as an obvious act of violence may have a relieving feature in that the person indulging in the act is extremely remorseful and regretful all the time and perpetrating the act under conditions which are beyond control in the set-up he finds himself in. Again, there are acts which appear non-injurious externally, but are inspired by passions inside. I should here quote the following verses from Acarya Haribhadra Suri's Himsastaka in corroboration of these aspects of himsa and ahimsa : avidhayapi hi himsam himsaphalabhajanam bhavatyekah krtvapyaparo himsam himsaphalabhajanam na syat (1) ekasyalpa himsa dadati kale phalam analpam anyasya mahahimsa khalvaphala bhavati paripake kasyapi disati himsa himsaphalam ekam eva phalakale anyasya caiva himsa disatyahimsaphalam vipulam (6) himsaphalam aparasya tu dadatyahimsa tu pariname itarasya punar himsa disatyahimsaphalam nanyat (7) (2) 55 The substance is this: one may sometimes have to enjoy the fruit of himsa even without having actually performed it. Sometimes one does not reap the fruit of himsa even when appearing to have performed it (1). Sometimes an act which appears as weak himsa may produce a mighty result, and on other occasions, an act appearing as himsa of considerable dimension may have a result which is slight in proportion (2). Sometimes an act of himsa produces only bad result, but on other occasions the same act could confer immense benefits of ahimsa (6). Sometimes, again, ahimsa can produce the results of himsa, and on other occasions, an act appearing as himsa could confer exclusively the fruit of ahimsa (7). Acarya Amrtacandra Suri also gives these verses in his Purusarthasiddhyupaya (51, 52, 56, 57), adding others which further

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56 JAIN JOURNAL clarify the issue. He also believes in the vicarious enjoyment of the results of karman, when he says: ekah karoti himsam bhavanti phalabhagino bahavah bahava vidadhati himsam himsaphalabhug bhavat ekah (55) A single person can perform an act of himsa which produces effects on many, and vice versa. The Jainas are reputed for their meticulous observance of ahimsa by abstaining from meat, eggs, etc., and restricting the use of green vegetables even. Their religious rituals also are ahimsa-oriented. The Jaina monks and nuns take utmost care to avoid injury to life in all forms, including insects, mosquitos and even green vegetables and water, which are not devoid of life. The Jaina laymen also are prohibited from indulging in intentional injury to life and required to restrict even unavoidable acts of himsa as far as possible. Their food habits are also regulated accordingly. These restrictions are sometimes enforced so punctiliously that they appear extended ad nauseam. The result is that an outsider begins to dislike them and have misconceptions. Thus in Hindu Ethics by Mackenzie we have : "The root idea of the doctrine of ahimsa ... is the awe in which the savage regards life in all the forms." (p. 112) Such views owe their origin to a complete misunderstanding of the Jaina conception of soul and the doctrine of spiritual development. A still more superficial impression about Jainism is that the Jainas carry the viture of charity so far as to cause, now and then, some poor wretch (whom they pay off) to yield his body as pasture-land for lice and fleas and other amiable creatures and let them have their fill. These and other such allegations are fantastic on the face of it. Sometimes the Jainas themselves feel embarrassed by their professions. They have to participate in acts and deeds which are not approved by their religious code. There are industrial enterprises which a Jaina cannot run if he has to stick to his ancient code which prohibited trades involving injury to life. But if one remembers that there were, in ancient times, pious Jaina laymen who had big plots of land for cultivation, his fears will be allayed. Jainism has preached a graduated course of moral and spiritual conduct. The over-emphasis on the external act that Jainism has sometimes laid is perhaps due to too rigid an interpretation of the doctrine of ahimsa. I have already explained the views of Acarya Haribhadra and Amrtacandra on the issue. Of course, no act of ours is absolutely free from injury to life, but one should not forget that there are other features such as the good-will inside

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OCTOBER, 1967 and the remorse and regret with which an act is indulged in. The net result of karmic bondage is determined more by the forces that work inside than the actual act that is seen outside. Otherwise, the lucid interval of spiritual enlightenment would never come, and all souls would ever remain immersed in darkness. The Jainas have distinguished dravya-himsa from bhava-himsa. The external act of violence is the dravya-himsa, while the bad intention within is the bhava-himsa. Each one of the five vratas, viz., ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacarya and aparigraha has two aspects --positive and negative. When positively observed for welfare activities, they lead to punya-asrava, that is, inflow of the karmic particles that are destined to cause pleasure. But when observed as part and parcel of samvara, that is, when they are intended to stop the inflow of karmic particles by suspension of sinful acts, they are purely spiritual in character. In short, the mundane welfare is achieved by their positive application, while for spiritual detachment, their negative observance is prescribed. The positive application has been viewed by Pujyapada Devanandin as a preliminary preparation for and of the ultimate end of samvara or self-restraint-pravrttiscatra drsyate himsanrtadattadanadiparityage himsasatyavacanadattadanadikriyapratiteh guptyadisamvaraparikarmatvacca-(SS, VII. 1). The most important step towards realisation of ahimsa is the attitude of renunciation(pratyakhyana) which means limitation of desires. The supreme determinant of the spiritual discipline of Jaina monks and nuns is renunciation of desires and recoiling from the acts of sin-past, present and future. Karmayoga is the condition of better life, while sannyasa leads to moksa. 57 Ahimsa is not an impossible creed. It demands detachment and patience. Whatever good it succeeds in conferring is good for all irrespective of time or space. "Non-injury to living beings", says Samantabhadra, "is the Parama-Brahman. It is compatible with the mode of life where there is the least chance of any kind of torture." ahimsa bhutanam jagati viditam brahma paramam na sa tatrarambhostyanur api ca yatrasramavidhan (BSS, 119, a.b.) This is the ideal state of things to be achieved by ahimsa. Obstacles are many and some appear insurmountable too. But all ideals are such. Problems are to be solved by peaceful means and not by force. Ahimsa has the advantage of being the means and also the end.

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VERSES POEMS CIDANANDA [ Cidananda, one of the saint-poets of the Jainas, was born in the middle of the 19th century. His real name was Karpura Candra. We do not know much about his life or activities, but it is said that once he went on pilgrimage with a Jaina devotee from Bhavnagar in Saurashtra to Girnar and from there he disappeared. After that he rarely came to human locality. He died at Pareshnath Hills. His verses reveal his deep knowledge not only of religion and philosophy of the Jainas, but also of other Faiths more particularly of the Yogic School. Besides theoretical knowledge, it appears that he had intuitive knowledge and supernatural power of a yogi. His verses are direct, full or rhythm and excel in poetic vision and beauty.) 17 Ye have wasted your life Oh fool! Ye have wasted your life. By becoming the slave of Pleasant pleasures Ye have lost your capital Which is pure state of consciousness. By adopting five falsehoods Ye have not been able to discern yet What is real. And ye have become Fond of money and women. And so ye are roaming As if ye have lost your gold. And thus ye are roaming for eternity Suffering the pain of Birth, death and old age And know ye not when it will end. Ye have moved through Eightyfour lacs of species Always changing your shape anew But who will count them unless ye taste The juice of equanimity.

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OCTOBER, 1967 Still ye hear not It is wonder of all wonders. In the world Blessed is he, says Cidananda, Who is in love with his Lord. 18 Think it over thyself My dear! Think it over. Have no love for this body Which is not self. It is composed of particles of matter. And our Lord hath said, my dear, To consider this body as self Is the cause of all bondage. As gold exists with stone As butter in milk As oil in sesamum As scent with flowers So the self exists with this body. Fire exists in wood Which comes out when there is a cause So by knowing the cause and effect One can easily get over the bondage. As the swan separates Milk from water So do the wise make distinction Between self and body And destroy the bondage of karma. As a lion residing in the company of goats Knows his own prowess Only when it comes in contact With the lion of the forest So, says Cidananda Know ye thy true self. 19 It behoves him not to sleep Who hath to go a long way. It is now dawn Mothers are patting their children

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JAIN JOURNAL And everybody is washing his teeth. All creepers have blossomed Radiating fragrance And milkmen all Are churning curd to separate butter. Give up idleness Be at your work Cidananda is with thee Waste not your life. 20 Illusion is this world Who hath known this knows the Real. All the pleasures of this body, Riches and youth Are but transcient Like the floating clouds. All are transitory Like the decomposing frame of an ox.. Says Cidananda, Have no affection for anything, Right preceptor has shown the way. 1 Mithyatva (ignorance), abirati (lack of restraint), kasaya (passions like anger, conceit, deceit and lust), pramada (unmindfulness) and yoga (activities of mind, speech and body).

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The Jaina as a Jina RISHABHCHAND It is common knowledge that the past cannot be recovered any more than it can be annulled. To annul the past is to be rootless, and to try to recover it as it was is a vain attempt, buffeted by time and the forces of evolution. The essence of the past is flowing in the veins of the present, and the best use one can make of it is to nourish it to gr and contribute to the birth of a more glorious future. The chance it gives to create this glorious future is the highest homage that can be paid to the great past. But the Jainas know that Jainism as practised today is not what it was in the days of Lord Mahavira, and that it was not in the days of Lord Mahavira what it had been in the good old ages. Times change and so does the human mind reorient its focus of attention. History weeds out anachronisms, and life takes care to guard against the inroads of atavism. So to force the present into the mould of the past is to crush the springs of its life and destroy its possibilities. To persist in a mechanical repetition of the old is to court moral and spiritual petrifaction. Man's destiny beckons him to new adventures, unexplored regions and unprecedented conquests. The ramparts of the old crumble down as he launches out to meet the challenge of the future. There is perhaps no denying the fact that the age of religions has gone by and asceticism had had its day. To make these outlive their utility is to promote hypocrisy and stagnation in society. Old customs and conventions, rites and rituals are fast going by the board, as anyone who opens his eyes can see ; and very few of them are likely to survive for long. And yet man cannot live without religion and without some expressive forms in his active life, which crystallise as customs and rites, and a certain amount of asceticism too is indispensable to spiritual progress. If the old shells of religions have become effete, and the creeds and dogmas corroded by rust and ineffectual in practice, it is futile to lament. Time breathes upon everything formed and finite. A soulless, formalistic religion can be professed only as a veneer or a cloak. To pretend to be its followers is to deceive oneself and spread the infection of doubledealing. But truth is eternal, and the soul of man is immortal. The emergent soul secretes out of itself new principles and new forms of

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62 thought, evolves fresh and flexible modes of life and builds up a new social fabric. It does not echo or copy, it creates. JAIN JOURNAL Spirituality a wide, dynamic, creative spirituality-welling out of the resurgent soul of man will be the religion of tomorrow. The cultural crisis of the present can only end either in disintegration or in a new creation. It is for man to choose between the two. If he wants, not disintegration, but a new creation, it is essential that he should undergo a radical transformation, a veritable rebirth. And all impulse to spiritual rebirth comes from the soul. So the soul of the Jaina, revolting against the cramping hold of dead conventions, must awaken and assert its own inherent divinity and radiate its light and power in this hour of darkness. Not by the easy path of blind conformity, not by intellectual research and philosophical expositions, nor even by an expenditure of energy, time and money in botched, tinkering reforms can a society be renovated. This craze for social or humanitarian service is not native to the Indian soil. It is mostly western, and particularly modern, a legacy of the Renaissance Humanism. This desire for social or humanitarian work sometimes comes to a person who, in consequence of a stirring in his soul, feels a sort of discontent with the sombre present. This discontent may be a prelude to a real spiritual awakening, but Nature takes good care to sluice it off into a reformist fervour. The person, shackled and ignorant himself, then goes forth with hope and enthusiasm to bring light and freedom to his fellow-beings His mental ego feels a secret gratification that it is engaged in a "selfless" work. The world applauds him. Honour and respect shower upon him. But the stirring of his depths has ceased. His mind has filched the palm from his soul. In India, in contrast, whenever there has been a cultural decay or decline, a new wave of spirituality has swept over the country and galvanised its life. All movements of life have been preceded by a spiritual upsurge. For, it is the Spirit alone that can recreate, re-form and remould, not the mind of man. Ethical self-culture is indeed a most edifying pursuit provided one can guard against the inflation of the sattvic ego. But even ethics is not spirituality. It is a great means, not an end and may very soon become a bar in itself. The ethical man tends to be attached to mind-made principles and rules, which he considers categorical and sacrosanct. He may achieve some amount of mental mastery over his lower nature, but bound in a chain of gold, he is unable to wing up to the Emperean of the Spirit. It is only the soul's fire and not the ardours of the mind that can bring about the rebirth of man and his society. The fire that burned

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OCTOBER, 1967 in Lord Mahavira and his faithful followers must flame up again in the soul of the Jaina who has the good of his society or humanity at heart. The will to freedom--freedom from the meshes of karma, freedom from ignorance and suffering, freedom from the perpetual goad of desires and the endless wheeling from life to life--this will to freedom must first be roused and quickened if the night of bondage has to pass In this high adventure of self-discovery, the cardinal teachings of Jainism will stand him in good stead. I shall confine myself here to two of them, the greatest two, which, to my mind, have a very fruitful relevance to modern conditions. The first is Triratna, the triune path of Jnana (knowledge), Darsana (faith), and Caritra (character and conduct), which almost corresponds to the triple way of Jnana, Bhakti, and Karma of Hinduism. It is a great teaching of Jainism, however, that none of the three by itself can lead to liberation. The three must go together, in simultaneous interaction and perfection, to produce the desired result. Knowledge without its corresponding expression in life and character, or faith and action, unillumined by the light of knowledge, can never lead to moksa. This gospel of Triratna demands an integration in the being of man, which is one of the creative ideals of the modern age. The whole man, and not only his head or heart, or the active parts of his life, has to turn to the object of his aspiration. It is poor knowledge that fails to translate itself into the terms of life. It is shoddy Caritra that is not lit up with the light of the soul. An integrative tapasya (energising of the tapas or fire-force of the soul) can alone lead to liberation. The second teaching is a wonderful truth, which humanity has never needed so acutely as today-it is Anekanta. I do not mean Anekantavada, which is, of course a brilliantly comprehensive dialectic. I mean Anekanta dristi, the spiritual vision, which commands, from above the manifold world of changing relativities, a total view of the truth or truths of existence. It embraces all aspects of objects and happenings in a single glance, even as a man who has climbed to the summit of a mountain embraces in his view the whole landscape spread below him. It has not to piece the aspects together in order to arrive at a synthesis. It reconciles anomalies and contraries in the serene light of spiritual experience. It does not add or aggregate, it spontaneously harmonises, because it sees, it knows the unity of existence. It is small wonder then that Anekantavada, the dialectic, has failed to prevent opposition to heretical views and heal the discords with

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JAIN JOURNAL other communities and the divisions even among the branches of the same mother community. There can be no harmony, no reconciliation of contradictories in the reasoning mind of man. All that it may do is to arrive at a catholic accommodation, or a sympathetic tolerance. A unity or a synthesis will always elude its grasp. It is Anekanta dristi alone that can reconcile and unite. For, light, not logic is the yearning of the soul of man. Triratna and Anekanta can be an inestimable dual gift of Jainism to modern humanity--not as doctrines or theories, but as glowing experiences of the soul. Triratna, practised with an unrelaxed will and an undeviating sincerity, with the goal of moksa blazing before the inner eye, will turn a Jaina into a Jina, a conqueror of the animal in man. Released from all bondage, he will live in eternity, though housed in a mortal body, see with the eye of an unbarred knowledge, Kevala Jnana, of which Anekanta is a characteristic action, and act out of an infinite compassion for all creatures. 1 To tear down an old social structure without having the knowledge and the power to rear a better one in its place is to throw the society into chaos. and confusion.

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KAPILA A short story Kapila before the King Tears used to roll down from her eyes as Kapila's mother beheld the royal priest of Kausambi moving in a palanquin. Seeing this one day Kapila asked his mother why she was weeping. "It is you who should be moving in that palanquin," she said, but as you have not learnt anything someone else in moving in that. When I see this I cannot hold my tears back." Kapila felt remorse in his heart. "From this day", he said, "I will try to read and write." "That's something good", she said, "I cannot bear when they flung insult at you." So Kapila went to Sravasti to take his lessons from Acarya Indradatta, a close friend of his late father. Kapila took his lessons from Indradatta but lived in the family of merchant Salibhadra. For sometime he progressed with his studies but a time came when he had to give it up. Kapila with all the restlessness of his early youth fell in love with one of the maidens of the merchant's household. So when he had to sit with his preceptor after that, though apparently his eyes were on the page of his book of grammar, his mind was not.

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JAIN JOURNAL The day when Indradatta noticed this inattentiveness of Kapila it was raining. He curtly asked him what he was thinking. But it was very difficult for him to say what he was thinking when it was all dark and pit-pat sound of rain-drops was resounding all around. His eyes were then fixed on a rain-drenched bird on the top of tamala tree and he was thinking of the maiden's eyes which were as telling as those of the bird. But he could not say all these things to his master. So the preceptor rebuked him. Kapila was angry. He went for his meals but did not return. He took the girl with him and left for another place. From that day a new life began for Kapila. But as the days passed he could find that the love which he felt for the girl could not reciprocate in the humdrum of daily life. He saw also that she was not so superb as he used to think but was a simpleton. So when she began to paster him with her demands for gold-necklace, anklets, brocade, he found in it a desire to fill the void that separated them. He was really disillusioned and thought how mean she was. Kapila worked hard to earn his bread but it was not enough to buy a gold-necklace or anklets or brocade. So he remained quiet. This kind of life had no meaning for him. When he was in this state he heard of a merchant Dhana who gave two masas of gold as alms to anyone who happened to come to his gate first in the early morning. Kapila saw in it a ray of light--as if really the sun had arisen over the hills and a beam of it shooting through the dew-drenched deodar foilage was falling on the goldnecklace of his beloved. She had anklets at her feet and a sweet smile over her lips, her face being lined by the end of the brocade. Kapila could not sleep that night. When it was pitchy dark and stars were shining in the sky he was out on the road so that he might reach the merchant's house first. It was dark and he was alone on the road. The sentry on duty suspecting him to be a thief caught him and produced him before the king next morning.

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OCTOBER, 1967 When the king heard everything he was pleased to release him. Then he said, "I will give you whatever you want." Kapila began to think of gold-necklace, anklets and brocade. But next he thought that it was not worthwhile to ask for such insignificant things from the king. If he wanted to live a happy and easy life, he should want more and still more, probably his whole kingdom. The king assured him again that he would give whatever Kapila would ask for. Kapila was on the point of asking the whole kingdom. But then he stopped short as light dawned in his mind. He saw that there was no end to asking. Even the whole kingdom might not be enough. And then he saw that at the root of all our miseries was this want. If one could conquer this he could live in peace eternal. When Kapila was thus contemplating, the king again asked him what he wanted. Now Kapila raised his eyes, looked at the king and said slowly, "I WANT NOTHING." Kapila did not return home. He took the way that wended through the forest beyond the hills. Kapila's tonsure

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HERMANN JACOBI on The Original Traits of Jainism In an essay entitled "The Metaphysics and Ethics of the Jainas', printed in The Transactions of The Third International Congress for The History of Religions, Vol. II, Jacobi said, "All who approach Jaina philosophy will be under the impression that it is a mass of philosophical tenets not upheld by one central idea, and they will wonder what could have given currency to what appears to us an unsystematic system. I myself have held and given expression to this opinion but I have now learned to look at Jaina philosophy in a different light. It has, I think, a metaphysical basis of its own which secured it a distinct position apart from the rival systems." "Jainism", says Jacobi, "is a monastic religion. Some European scholars who became acquainted with Jainism through inadequate samples of Jaina literature easily pursuaded themselves that it was an offshoot of Buddhism. But it has since been proved beyond doubt that their theory is wrong." That the above theory is wrong is further demonstrated by Jacobi in his comparison of the last Jaina prophet Mahavira with the first and only prophet of Buddhism Gautama Buddha. In his words: "Mahavira, however, unlike Buddha, was most probably not the founder of the Sect... Mahavira is not described by tradition as having first become a disciple of teachers whose doctrines afterwards failed to satisfy him, as we are told of Buddha ; he seems to have had no misgivings, and to have known where truth was to be had and thus he became a Jaina monk. And again, when, after many years of austerities such as are practised by other ascetics of the Jainas, he reached omniscience, we are not given to understand that he found any new truth or a new revelation, as Buddha is said to have received ; not is any particular doctrine or philosophical principle mentioned, the knowledge and insight of which then occurred to him for the first time. Mahavira appears in the traditions of his own sect as one who, from the beginning, had followed a religion established long ago ; had he been more, had he been the founder of Jainism, tradition, ever eager to extol a prophet,

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OCTOBER, 1967 would not have totally repressed his claims to reverence as such. Nor do Buddhistic traditions indicate that the Niganthas owed their origin to Nataputta ; they simply speak of them as a sect existing at the time of the Buddha. We cannot, therefore, without doing violation to tradition, declare Mahavira to have been the founder of Jainism. But he is without doubt the last prophet of the Jainas." The words 'dharma' and 'adharma' are old indeed but they are considered synonymous with 'papa' and 'punya', or virtue and vice. The Jainas alone have made a very original use of the words 'dharma' and 'adharma' which is unique to them. In Jaina sacred literature, the former stands for Motion and the latter for Rest. In recognising this, Jacobi writes : "As their names 'dharma' and 'adharma' indicate, they seem to have denoted, in primitive speculation, those invisible 'fluids' which by contact cause sin and merit. The Jainas, using for the latter notions the terms papa and punya, were free to use the current names of these 'fluids' in a new sense not known to other Indian thinkers." Another very original contribution of the Jainas is their view about Matter for which they have used the word pudgala. Integral to this is their animistic ideas which must have been prevalent in the Indian society long before the growth of the more advanced ideas of the Brahmanas in this respect. Another Jaina originality lay in their notion of an aggregation of embodied souls which have been called nigoda which is yet to be hit upon by the modern biological sciences. And finally the Jainas have emphasized upon the inexhaustibility in the supply of souls. In the words of Jacobi : "All material things are ultimately produced by the combination of atoms. Two atoms form a compound when the one is viscous and the other dry, or both are of different degrees of viscousness or dryness, such compounds combine with others, and so on. They are, however, not constant in their nature but are subject to change or development (parinama) which consists in the assumption of qualities (gunas). In this way originate also the bodies and senses of living beings. The elements-earth, water, fire and wind--are bodies of souls in the lowest stage of development and are therefore spoken as 'earth-bodies', 'waterbodies', etc. Here we meet with animistic ideas which, in this form, are peculiar to Jainism. They probably go back to a remote period, and must have prevailed in classes of Indian society... The notions of the

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70 Jainas about beings with only one organ are, in part, peculiar to themselves... We may call these elementary lives; they live and die and are born again in the same or another elementary body. These elementary lives are either gross or subtle; in the latter case, they are invisible. The last class of one-organed lives are plants; of some plants each is the body of one soul only, but of other plants each is an aggregation of embodied souls which have all functions of life, as respiration and nutrition, in common. That plants possess souls is an opinion shared by other Indian philosophers. But the Jainas have developed this theory in a remarkable way. Plants in which only one soul is embodied are always gross; they exist in the habitable parts of the world only. But those plants of which each is a colony of plant-lives may also be subtle, i.e., invisible and in that case they are distributed all over the world. These subtle plants are called nigoda; they are compound of an infinite number of souls forming a very small cluster, have respiration and nutrition in common and experience the most exquisite pains. Innumerable nigodas form a globule and with them the whole space of the world is closely packed, like a box filled with powder. The nigodas furnish the supply of souls in place of those who have reached nirvana. But an infinitesimally small fraction of one single nigoda has sufficed to replace the vacancy caused in the world by the nirvana of all the souls that have been liberated from the beginningless past down to the present. Thus it is evident that the samsara will never be empty of living beings." JAIN JOURNAL The karma theory is an integral part of all systems of Indian philosophy but at first sight it may appear that the karma theory is somewhat incongruous with the animistic notions of the early Jaina religion and is a later interpolation under the Brahmanical influence. This, however, is not correct. According to Jacobi, the broad outlines of the karma, theory, if not all its details, must have been as old as Jainism itself and was closely and carefully interwoven with animistic notions. Besides, some of the technical terms in the karma theory have been used by the Jainas alone in their original etimological sense, which has later influenced other systems. In brief, the Jaina theory of karma is not only old, it is also original, breaking a new ground of its own. In the words of Jacobi : "It seems so obstruce and highly artificial that one would readily believe it a later developed metaphysical doctrine which was grafted on an original religious system based on animistic notions and intent on sparing all living beings. But such a hypothesis would be in conflict with the fact that this karma theory, if not in all details, certainly in the main outlines, is acknowledged in the oldest parts of the Canon and

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OCTOBER, 1967 presupposed by many expressions and technical terms occurring in them. Nor can we assume that in this regard the Canonical books represent a later dogmatic development for the following reason : the terms asrava, samvara and nirjara, etc., can be understood only on the supposition that karma is a kind of subtle matter flowing or pouring into the soul (asrava), that this influx can be stopped or its inlets covered (samvara) and that the karma matter received into the soul is consumed or digested, as it were, by it (nirjara). The Jainas understood these terms in their literal meaning and used them in explaining the way of salvation. Now these terms are as old as Jainism. For the Buddhists have borrowed from it the most significant term asrava... but not in its literal meaning... the karma theory of the Jainas is an integral part of their system and.... Jainism is considerably older than the origin of Buddhism." Commenting on the Jaina notion of ahimsa, Jacobi writes, "Their extreme carefulness not to destroy any living being, a principle which is carried out to its very last consequences in monastic life, and has shaped the conduct of the laity in a great measure. No layman will intentionally kill any living being, nor even any insect howsoever troublesome; he will remove it carefully without hurting it... This principle of not hurting any living being bars them from some professions, e.g., agriculture, and has thrust them into commerce..." Jacobi discusses at length the Jaina theory of being and vindicates that all systems of Indian philosophy either emanated from, or were very much influenced by, Jainism. To quote him on these two very vital issues: "The Jaina theory of Being seems to be a vindication of commonsense against the paradoxical speculations of the Upanisads. It is also, but not primarily, directed against the Buddhistic tenets of the transitoriness of all that exists. We cannot, however, say that it expressly and consciously combats the Buddhistic view, or that it was formulated in order to combat it. And this agrees well with the historical facts that Mahavira came long after the original Upanisads but was a contemporary of Buddha. He was obliged, therefore, to frame his system so as to exclude the principles of Brahmanical speculation, but his position was a different one with regard to the newly proclaimed system of Buddha." He writes further : "Now the Sarkhya view as to the problem of Being is clearly a kind of compromise between the theory of the Upanisads and what we

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72 may call the common-sense view. The Sankhyas adopt the former with regard to the souls or purusas which are permanent and without change. They adopt the latter when assigning to matter or prakrti its character of unceasing change... the Sankhyas and Jainas are at one with regard to the nature of matter...but worked it out on different lines ... The Jainas do not recognise a psychical apparatus of such a common nature as the Sankhyas in their tenets concerning buddhi, ahamkara, manas and the indriyas. The Jaina opinion is much cruder and comes briefly to this. According to the merit or demerit of a person, atoms of a peculiar subtle form which we still call karma-matter invade his soul or jiva Compare the Jaina tapas with what corresponds to it in Sankhya-Yoga. Their yoga contains some of the varieties of Jaina tapas; but they are regarded as inferior to meditation or contemplation. Indeed the whole of yoga centres in contemplation, all other ascetic practices are subordinate and subservient to contemplation-dhyana, dharana and samadhi. This is but natural in a system which makes the reaching of the summum bonum dependent on jnana or knowledge. The theory of the evolution of prakrti, beginning with buddhi, ahamkara and manas appears, to my mind, to have been invented in order to explain the efficiency of contemplation for acquiring supernatural powers and for liberating the soul. Sankhya-Yoga is a philosophical system of ascetics; but their asceticism has been much refined and has become spiritualised in a high degree. The asceticism of the Jainas is of a more original character; it chiefly aims at the purging of the soul from the impurities of karman. Jainism may have refined the asceticism then current in India; it certainly rejected many extravagances, such as the voluntary inflicting of pains; but it did not alter its character as a whole. It perpetuated an older or more original phase of asceticism than the Brahmanical yoga, and carries us back to an older substratum of religious life in which we can still detect relics of primitive speculation." JAIN JOURNAL Comparing the Jaina view with that of the Nyaya-Vaisesika school, Jacobi says: "The atomic theory which is a marked feature of the Vaisesika is already taught in outline by the Jainas. As regards the Nyaya system, it is almost certainly later than Jainism, for the dialectics and logic of the Jainas are of a very primitive character and appear entirely unconnected with the greatly advanced doctrines of the Naiyayikas." Finally, we may note Jacobi's view about the place of the laity in the Jaina order which according to him has helped the permanence of the

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OCTOBER, 1967 Jaina religion in India despite its encountering a mighty adversary in Hinduism. This is a significant characteristic of Jainism unknown perhaps in any living religion. In the words of Jacobi : "...The lay part of the community were not regarded as outsiders, or only as friends and patrons of the order, as seems to have been the case in early Buddhism ; their position was from the beginning welldefined by religious duties and privileges; the bond which united them to the order of monks was an effective one. The state of a layman was one preliminary, and, in many cases, preparatory to the state of a monk;... It cannot be doubted that this close union between laymen and monks brought about by the similarity of their religious duties, differing not in kind but in degree, has enabled Jainism to avoid fundamental changes within and to resist dangers from without for more than two thousand years, while Buddhism, being less exacting as regarding the lay-men, underwent the most extra-ordinary evolutions and finally disappeared in the country of its origin."

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GLEANINGS SG ** 88 * "The Jainas were great scholars of language, grammar, astrology, earth-engineering, mathematics and philosophy. They taught all castes liberally and did not exclude ladies. The rocky testimony to a Jaina university at Rayadurgam is as glorious as it is unmistakable. It would have been started in the Rastrukuta times on the hill in the Jaina establishment near the small but perennial spring and would have carried on till some years after the fateful battle of Raksasatagdi. On the hill we see an old Jaina temple facing the north, whose sikhara is assembled from undressed slab-stones. Proceeding further, we get down to reach a huge boulder rising like a building under the shade of the banyan trees. On this boulder, at a height of about ten feet, we see the figures of three-one, and three, Jaina teachers or Tirthankaras carved in rows at three different places. These signify three separate departments of teaching in that university...... Below these Tirthankara figures we

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OCTOBER, 1967 find rows of sitting persons, teacher and taught. At one end is the teacher and the pupils (elderly though) are sitting facing him and offering him salutation. In one row, there are two teachers and six pupils, two ladies and four men. In four other rows there is one teache the left of each row and five lady pupils for each teacher. In other rows there is one pupil for one teacher. The teachers have vyasapithas or book-stands before them and so there is no mistaking of their intent... This is a university, a Jaina university at Rayadurg. The pupils, who went up the difficult approach-path could get rid of some karma, quench their thirst (if any) with the water of a small but perennial well on the hill under the boulder, worship the Tirthankara in the temple and reach the place of teaching. Several teachers were there to handle the different subjects. Women were not prohibited. When the lessons were over, they could very easily get down the hill on the other and easier side and return to their places." -S. GOPALAKRISHNA MURTHY, 'A Jain University' in Jain Vestiges in Andhra.

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DIGEST The Key of Knowledge (from the previous issue ) CHAMPAT RAI JAIN Allahabad : 1928 Chapter VI : The Kingdom of God How is a beginning to be made in respect of proper conduct? The answer is clear. In our blind materialism we have neglected to consider the only important thing that is to be known, namely, the Soul. We have considered the physical encasement superior to everything else, and are doing our best to study its comforts, forgetting that the real enjoyer is not the body at all, but something of which the body is merely an objectified expression. If the body were the enjoyer, it ought to go on enjoying its comforts even after death, but it is obvious that no dead body is ever anxious to be propped up on cushions, or to be clothed in purple and silk. We should not find it difficult now to comprehend why everyone who looks at a woman with lust is as much guilty as if he had actually committed adultery with her. Mere entertaining of a lustful thought suffices to set up harmful vibrations which must produce their full effect, unless countermanded, in time, by more powerful vibrations of holy thought. This is how every thought is punished or rewarded. You entertain evil thoughts, and you suffer for them, here or hereafter. If, on the other hand, your thoughts are healthy, you get your reward in the increase of spiritual vigour and life. Thus, the only way of getting into the Kingdom of Heaven is the giving up or renunciation of desires, which will make the innermost condition of desirelessness (true bliss) shine forth as a light freed from the covering of a bushel. All the Tirthankaras, and Saviours and sages are agreed as to this. This is what Lord Mahavira preached, this what Moses taught, this is actually what Jesus repeated in the Holy Land, and this is what Science is soon to discover and proclaim to the World from house-tops. People do not realise the full force of their error on this point. When the subject be

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OCTOBER, 1967 comes better known, sinlessness will increase, for then mankind will learn that they have to shape their own desitiny, as they think fit. The ancient sages while realising that man was himself the sat-citananda-the condition he wanted to attain todid not lose sight of the fact that its practical attainment was hedged in by certain difficulties inherent in his very disposition, of which the wondering nature of the mind was the most troublesome and annoying. The necessity to stop the wandering of the mind becomes all the more important when it has to deal with such subtle and fine forces as compose the fetters of the soul. All the Saviours of mankind are agreed on this principle. To overcome this annoyance they prescribed mental concentration. The idea is that in order to be effective, force must be persistently applied to a single point. How's this to be done ? The process of elimination of wickedness requires a belief in the ability of the Creative Power' to accomplish this beneficial change. Hence when you have no faith in the ability of this Power itself, how can you invoke its aid or allow it to do you any good ? In plain language, the spirit or soul is an entity which is capable of attaining the highest ideal of perfection as well as of falling into the lowest state of degradation and helplessness. To attain perfection, different methods have been prescribed by different religions. Broadly, these may be called prayer. The Jainas have, however, evolved a distinctive mode of prayer called samayika which consists in an endeavour to refrain from the commission of all kinds of sin for a certain period of time--usually for an antaramuhurta (about 48 minutes) every day. During this period one should, engage oneself, with a cheerful mind in subduing one's likes and dislikes, and should dissociate oneself mentally from all kinds of interests and undertakings of which the wordly personality is made up. The most valuable gain from samayika is the cultivation of an ever-growing feeling of equanimity, that well-balanced state of mental quietude and serenity which is the foremost attribute of divinity. Samayika consists in 1. repenting for the faults commited in the past, 2. resolving to abstain from sinning in the future, renunciation of personal likes and dislikes, praise of Tirthankaras (Perfect Teachers or Gods), devotion to a particular Tirthankara, and withdrawal of attention from the body, and its being directed towards the soul, i.e., the cultivating of a sense detachment from the body.

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JAIN JOURNAL The difference between prayer and samayika is brought out in the following table : Prayer Samayika Begging for forgiveness of sins | 1 and other boons from another Exerting oneself to avoid sinning, by repenting for the sins already committed, and by resolving not to commit others in the future. Renunciation of likes and dislikes, which is the cause of mental equanimity and leads to blissfulness of being. 13 1 Praise of a wrathful creator, jealous of his unity, by one who can never aspire to become his equal. Praise of Tirthankaras, who have attained to perfection by their own exertion. Devotion to one particular Tirthankara whose biography is to be taken as furnishing inspiration to one's own soul, the Perfect One having risen to the status of Divinity from the ordinary position of a sinful soul. Correcting the prevalent error of the body being taken for the man, and the conquest of 'flesh'. A glance at the left-hand side of the table suffices to demonstrate that the two chief characteristics of prayer are : 1. one's dependence upon another than one's own self, and 2. the denial of soul's divinity. That there is nothing commendable, but everything objectionable in these elements will, we think, be quite plain to any one familiar with the nature of the soul and the effect of evil suggestion on its. career.

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OCTOBER, 1967 Samayika, on the other hand, is the very process which is directly connected with the end in view in a casual way, and is, for that reason, the true method of meditation. Chapter VII : Yoga Yoga is the bridge between God and man. With its aid man may not only catch glimpses of the blissful goal, but also cross the yawning and enter the precincts of the heaven beyond in his own proper person. Yoga aims at imparting the knowledge of Truth, and, at the same time, at building up an unchanging, undying faith in the heart. It means union, or the linking together of man to God, or, more correctly, dis-union, or separation from the objects of the senses, that is, from the perishable phenomenal world (Max Muller). It is the science which leads the initiate by easy steps or gradations to the loftiest heights of Self-realisation, till he stand face to face with the object of his search. This is the best proof he can have of the truth of the doctrine. Yoga teaches us that knowledge is the only means whereby the spell can be broken. Obviously, it is the state of one's belief which has to be affected, so that one may be able to purge the mind of the wrong impression of inferiority and 'duality'. But belief cannot be changed except by reason, that is, knowledge. Hence, it is clear that knowledge alone is the weapon which can attack wrong impressions and destroy false beliefs. Yoga insists on each man working out his salvation himself. Everyone according to this system has to stand on his own legs; none may claim support from his neighbour. If one person out of half a dozen is demesmerised, it is not of any value to others who do not undergo the 'unwinding' process themselves. Each one must discover and apply the Key of Knowledge to his own heart where the serpent of darkness is supposed to be in hiding. You must remove your own doubts, one by one, for no one but you yourself know what your doubts are. This is the very first principle. The next essential is meditation, without which no knowledge is possible. But meditation depends on concentration, which is the real secret of success. The object of concentration should, be, firstly, the denial of duality, which means a denial of the imaginary unbridgeable gulf, set up by modern theology between God and man, that is, of the

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80 supposed, eternal, unqualified inferiority of man and of his inability to attain to Godhood, and, secondly, the positive assertion of the Divinity of the Self. This should be the real aim and object of concentration. JAIN JOURNAL Another important means of strengthening faith is the chanting of holy mantras, i.e., religious formulas, or texts, of which the monosyllabic aum or om is the most potent, since it is indicative of the five orders of spiritually evolved beings, arhats (Tirthankaras), asariras (Liberated souls), acaryas (leaders of saints), upadhyayas (professor saints) and munis (ordinary saints). Chanting the praises of the self is the most potent means for changing the negative rhythm into the positive one. A few words may be added here on bhakti yoga which is supposedly the earliest, and, therefore, the most popular, path of Self-realisation. Bhakti in its true sense means devotion to an ideal, and incidentally the worshipping of those who have already attained to its realisation. The causal connection between the ideal of the soul and the worshiping of those who have already realised it is to be found in the fact that the realisation of an ideal demands one's wholehearted attention, and is only possible by following in the footsteps of those who have actually reached the goal. The analysis of the nature of bhakti entitles us to say that no one who does not excite, in the fullest degree, the feelings of love and reverence in our hearts is entitled to our devotion. This amounts to saying that the being to whom the heart spontaneously offers its devotion is he who is its greatest sympathiser and well-wisher. Now, since these qualifications are to be found in the Tirthankara alone who preaches the dharma (religion or path) that leads to the Perfection and Bliss of Gods, in other words, who enables the soul to attain to the sublime status of Godhood, none but He is entitled to or can command the full adoration of the heart. He is worshipped not because worship or devotion is the end in itself, but because He is the only true guide to the Goal, so that devotion is primarily centered round the Ideal of the soul. Here again, we observe that idealatry and not idolatry is the path to nirvana. Thus, in its primary sense, bhakti really means devotion to the Ideal of the soul, and in a secondary one, the worshipping of those Great One's who have already attained to its realisation, and who are, therefore, best qualified to instruct and guide others. The rationale of bhakti can now be described with logical precision. First arises discernment or insight, called faith; this changes the outlook of life, transforms loose conceptions and stray notions about dharma

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OCTOBER, 1967 into right knowledge, and is followed by an intense desire for the realisation of the Ideal. This is devotion of love, and leads to the worship of the Tirthankara. Finally, when conduct is purified and becomes perfect under the combined influence of knowledge and love, the binding force of karmas is destroyed and the soul is set free to enjoy its natural omniscience and bliss. The chief obstacle on the path of yoga, which beginners have to get over, lies in the mechanism of habit which the easy-going will like to adhere to. It is not to be supposed that the actual, practical science of yoga is characterised by anything resembling the ease with which we have been discussing it here. We know, from practical experience, how hard it is to break through any deep-rooted habit. Yoga has to get over not one or two of such habits alone, but over all those traits and tendencies and inclinations which lead in the wrong direction; and their number is legion. Hence, yoga accepts only those disciples, in the first instance, in whom zeal and earnestness have been emancipated from the thraldom of habit, or slothfulness by viveka (discrimination), vairagya (non-attachment), tyaga (renunciation), and faith. From being accepted as a disciple to the full realisation of the Self, that is, the attainment of bliss, eight steps are pointed out by Patanjali, the venerable codifier of this science; and they are: yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi. To sum up, the real yoga for man is to know and realise his own divine nature, and to establish himself in the beatific state of blessedness and bliss, by subduing and mortifying the little, self-deluded, bodily self. The process of realisation is threefold, and consists in Right Insight or Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct, that is to say, in singeing the wings of sin,, i.e., ignorance, by the fire of wisdom in destroying the delusion of duality by faith in the Godhood of the Self, and in radiating peace and goodwill and joy to all beings in the universe, in short, in settling down to the enjoyment of one's true Self, here and now. Let the world call it idleness, if it likes; what does it matter to the soul? Neither Mahavira, nor Parsva nor any other Saviour of the race kept shop, or sold merchandise. Yet whoever dared consider them idle? What is the value of the opinion of the worldly mortals to him who depends not on the opinion of others for his happiness, but who knows and feels the Self to be the very fountain-head of bliss itself? "I tell you what is man's supreme vocation. Before me was no world, 'tis my creation. 'Twas I who raised the Sun from out the sea, The moon began her changeful course with me.'" 81 -Goethe

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JAIN JOURNAL Chapter VIII : Resurrection The real cause of trouble lies in the fact that we consider the body to be the man, which is not correct. A story is told in the Yoga Vasistha of a war between devas and the powers of darkness. The leader of the latter forces one day created, by his power of maya, three asuras without ahamkara, and sent them to fight the devas. The latter fought hard against them but in vain. Their egoless opponents had no fear of destruction on account of the absence of ahamkara, and proved invincible. The devas thereupon sought the advice of Brahma, who told them that their enemies could not be killed unless they developed ahamkara within them. When asked as to how they were to proceed to create the sense of ahankara in their enemies, he suggested that they should constantly draw the asuras into the battle-field and then retire before them. The reason assigned for this queer method of warfare was that by their constantly pretending to fight and running away the vasana of ahamkara would begin to reflect itself in the minds of the dreaded asuras, as a shadow in glass and they would be caught, like rats, in the trap of egoity. The devas carried out the advice of Brahma, and a long period of time elapsed during which )this queer warfare was carried on to the great chagrin and irritation of the asuras. Gradually, the sense of egoity stole into the minds of the invincible demons, and fear took hold of their hearts. The devas no longer found them invulnerable, and speedily overpowered them. The lesson to be learnt from the story is described in the Yoga Vasistha, in the following words : "In the three worlds there are three kinds of ahamkaras. Of these, two kinds of ahamkaras are always beneficial and one always condemnable. That inana which after discrimination enables us to cognise that all the worlds and Paramatman are ourselves, that the self or 'I' is eternal and that there is no other to be meditated upon than our self is the Supreme Ahamkara. That jnana which makes us perceive our own self to be more subtle than the tail end of paddy and to be ever existent, exterior to (or above) all the universe, is the second kind of ahamkara. These two kinds of ahamkaras will certainly be found in the Jivan-muktas and will enable them to attain moksa after crossing samsara ; but will never subject them to bondage. That certain knowledge which identifies the 'l' with the body composed of the hands, feet, etc., is the third kind of ahamkara. This is common to all persons of the world and dire in its results. It is the cause of the growth of the poisonous tree of rebirths. It should be destroyed at all costs."

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OCTOBER, 1967 87 In plain language, it means that he who identifies his life with the lowest, i.e., the third kind of ahamkara, spoken above, shall lose it but he who sacrifices the lower ahamkara, that is, the sense of 'I-ness' or egoism, for the sake of the higher, or the Christ principle, will attain nirvana. Resurrection means the conquest of death and the realisation of the natural purity of the Atman, i.e., the Self. Now, because the realisation of this natural perfection depends on one's own exertion, and not on the merit, grace or favour of another, it is inconceivable how any outside agency can possibly lead to the emancipation of the soul from the clutches of sin and death. All that another can possibly do for one, in this respect is to call one's attention to the powers and forces lying hidden and latent in the soul, and for this reason it is necessary to take instruction from a properly qualified teacher. Arrived at the status of manhood, the jiva, has the choice, hence the power to attain salvation by the right use of his divine will. He may direct his energies in the direction of the phenomenal, and lose himself in the pursuit of the knowledge of good and evil, or, resolutely turn his back upon the world, and become absorbed in the realisation of his immortal, blissful Self. The first path leads to trouble, sickness, death, and hell, but the second is the mok sa-marga proper--the road to bliss and blessedness unabating. Arrived at the status of manhood, the soul has the power to claim its divine heritage of immortality and bliss, and to become the God which it already is in potency. If this opportunity is not availed of, it again falls into the cycle of births and deaths, with varying intervals of life in heaven or hell, according to its deeds on earth. While it has life, it has the chance of turning back from the path of evil, to follow in the footsteps of the Masters ; but once the vital spark departs from the frail, mortal frame of matter, the privilege attaching to the human birth is lost, and may not be had again for a long time to come! Neither friends, nor relations, nor teachers, nor possessions, nor, yet, name, fame, and the like, can be of any use to the soul in its post-mortem existence. Chapter IX : The Holy Trinity This is a learned chapter on Psychology where the author discusses at length the three attributes of mind, viz., consciousness, ideas and will or energy which operates on ideas. According to Jainism, living beings are either sangi (having a mind, i.e., the organ of reflection or thought) or asangi (a=not+sangi, hence

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84 JAIN JOURNAL Mind is an instrument and soul is the player, the mindless). The sangis enjoy the power of deliberation, and are able to learn if taught; they respond when they are called, and can also be trained. The organ of the mind (dravya mana) is a body of fine matter which is the instrument of reflection or thought. The dravya mana is composed of very fine material, and marks the limit of the specialisation of the function of nervous matter and nerve cells. It is not conscious in its own right, since consciousness belongs not to matter of which it is composed. As a matter of fact, this mind is, in a way, the instrument of limitation of knowledge, because it narrows down the field of consciousness to what is actually the subject of attention at any particular moment of time. To elucidate the point, full and unqualified omniscience is the nature of each and every soul ; but this is so only potentially in the case of those that are still involved in transmigration ; for in their case the purity of spirit is vitiated, more or less, by the contact of matter, there being no transmigrating soul which may be said to be altogether free from polution. Where the association with matter is of the worst type, as in the case of the lowest forms of life--metals and plants-knowledge is reduced to bare sensations of touch and a mechanical response to the external stimulus. In less unfortunate cases other sense organs also appear, but deliberation, i.e., reflection and memory (except what is known as habit memory) do not appear, unless the soul acquires the central organ of reflection and the power to check the headlong rush of the torrential current of animal passions and desires. The organ of reflection is the central telephone exchange of the nervous system where all the nerves--sensory and motor--have their terminal endings. The clerk-in-charge of the office is the soul, the self-conscious force, whose self-consciousness directly depends on and is affected by the nature of his tendencies, desires and passions. These desires and tendencies are all of them powerful forces originating in the constitution of the soul by virtue of its union with matter. They clog the mental stream with rubbish, and prevent reflection. The point of this current of tendencies, the head of the serpent manas, is attention, which tests the quality of the incoming sensory stimulus by laying itself open to its vibratory impulse and which may set a motor nerve in motion by augmentation of energy at its inner terminal. It is the application of attention, the connecting of the object without with the point of the mental stream, which is the twofold cause of the detailed knowledge of a thing as well as of the closing of the door against all other senses than the one which may be actually functioning. The amount of consciousness which watches over the actions of life where the intellect is not shedding its illuminative lusture, consists in the sparks given out, from time to time, at the sensory motor point,

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OCTOBER, 1967 in consequence of friction with the incoming stimulus, or of resistance to action. But the glow produced by reflection is the intellectual gleam with which reason carries on the adjustment of the soul's inner relations with the outer. 85 The control of the mind is exercised through the brain and the nervous sytem which are interposed between it and the body. The centripetal impulses coming from the periphery pass through the brain just as the motor impulses originating with the will find their way to the desired channel of activity through it. This is because the brain is superimposed, as a loop, over both the sensory and motor systems, through which the ego comes into touch with the physical world. Nevertheless the brain is not the chooser, since choice belongs to the ego, and also since the brain is composed of matter which is unconscious by nature. What connects the ego with the brain is the central organ of mind, which is composed of too fine a material to be visible except to clairvoyant vision. The nature of the matter of which this central organ (the dravya mana) is composed, is evident from the fact that it is in touch at one end with the finest nervous fibres of the brain, and, at the other, with the subtle and superfine substance of the soul which is absolutely beyond the reach of sense perception. The dravya mana is distinguishable from the manas of the non-Jaina systems, which is but another name for the individual will as appearing in the form of desire. As already stated, the material mind is only an instrument in the hands of the ego for deliberation, training, voluntary motion and intelligent speech, but the desiring manas represents the dynamic energy of the ego itself inclined in a particular way or ways. In different language, the manas consists in the energy of life bent on seeking gratification in respect of the four principal instincts or generic forms of desire, namely, ahara (food), bhaya (fear), maithuna (sexual indulgence) and parigraha (attachment to worldly goods), and is laden with the impurities deposited by the four kinds of passions-anger, pride, deceit and greed which arise from and are rooted in desire. The dravya mana, on the other hand, is intended, like a system of switches, to regulate the traffic between the ego and the outside world, and discharges its function by offering a choice of paths for the different kinds of movements. But it does not originate motion, for that is the function of the will. And the work of the will in producing motion is of the simplest description: it has merely to dwell upon an idea to produce motion in any desired manner. As William James points out, every idea tends ultimately either to produce a movement or to check one which otherwise would be produced.

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86 JAIN JOURNAL Such is the process of deliberation. Though not the thinker itself, the dravya mana is indispensable for deliberation, because thinking consists in a series of nascent novements, or 'sensations', which are not possible in the absence of the brain and the central nervous organ interposed between it and the will. Hence it is that all the lower forms of life which are not endowed with the brain and the central organ of choice and control, are also devoid of reflection. Incapable of controlling their activity, they are also incapable of deliberation. Their actions are all determined by their instincts; they live in the present and are incapable of judgement and choice. In mindless beings whose consciousness is too much vitiated by the influence of matter, conscious function never rises to the dignity of perception proper, and is confined to a feeling of sensations to which response is made in an automatic way. But the case with those who are endowed with a central mental equipment is very different. In their case we have first of all a vague detailless sense of awareness. This is called darsana (pure excitation or sensing) and is followed, if the soul so wishes, by avagraha, which means the singling out of an object with reference to its class, that is to say, the knowledge or awareness of its general properties, e.g., to know an object as a man. Then comes iha, which signifies an attitude of enquiry. The soul now exerts itself to acquire detailed information concerning the object of perception, brings its memory to bear upon the stimulus, the nature and composition of which it proceeds to ascertain with the aid of its mental 'reagents'. This process, which is dependent on the soul's interest in any given object, may be prolonged as long as it is desirable to continue the investigation. The important thing to know about this state (iha) is that perception here ceases to be mechnical and becomes volitional with the soul. The formation of the percept, consisting in the appearance of the correctly determined idea in the lime-light, is the result of iha. This is known as avaya, which is tantamount to the filling in of the detail in the general presentation or outline of an object in consciousness. The material basis here also is the mental stream, consisting of all kinds of freagents', which enable the intellect to test the properties of a sensation. The last stage is dharana (literally, grasping), which means retaining or constructing. By the process of isolation of individuals in the presentations are set up memory mechanisms in nervous fibres, as described before, and these tend to hold together more and more firmly with repetition. In other words, by dwelling upon a presentation or sensation repeatedly is set up a special grouping--a sort of button or keyof nerve-terminals in the region of the dravya mana, which when pres

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OCTOBER, 1967 sed, will yield, that is to say, call up again, the appropriate corresponding impression. This is dharana. As regards the nature and form of omniscience, the soul being an individual, i.e., an indivisible unit of consciousness, the idea of knowledge with reference to it is that of a state of conciousness which is neither the whole, nor a separated part of the substance of its being, but of an infinity of interpenetrating and iseparable phases or aspects, each of which is pervaded by the all-pervading consciousness of the self. In different words, every soul is, by nature, an individual Idea which is itself the summation of an infinity of different, but inseparable and interpenetrating ideas, or states of consciousness. But since all these ideas or states are not simultaneously present in the consciousness of each and every soul, some of them must necessarily exist in a sub-conscious or dormant condition, whence they emerge above the level whenever conditions are favourable for their manifestation. Thus, knowledge is never acquired from without, but only actualised from within. This is so even when we perceive a new object or are impressed with a new idea for the first time ; for the soul can never know anything except through the states of its own consciousness. Hence, unless the soul be endowed with the capacity to assume a state corresponding to the stimulus from without, it will never have the consciousness of the outside object. It will be now evident that an impression in or on consciousness differs from a statue in marble, in so far as it does not signify the chiselling off or removal of any part of its bulk but resembles it, inasmuch as it is brought into manifestation from within the soul's being itself. Thus, while all impressions may be said to lie dormant in the soul, in the same manner as all kinds of statues remain unmanifested in a slab of stone, they cannot be described as being created in the same way. There is no question of carving out anything in the case of an impression on the soul-substance, but only of a 'waking up of a state or a setting free of that which was previously held in bonds. Hence, all kinds of impressions, or states of consciousness lie latent in the soul, and only need the removal of the causes which prevent their coming into manifestation to emerge from the subconscious state. For the foregoing reasons, sense-perception implies no more than the uncovering of a pre-existing state or thought, the resonance of an already existing impress, or idea-rhythm, set free to vibrate in response to the incoming stimulus. It is this responsive reasonance of its own rhythm, hence, a state of its own consciousness, which is felt by the soul at the moment of cognition. It should be stated that the soul has no other means of knowing its own states than feeling them ; though the word

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JAIN JOURNAL feeling is here used in its widest sense, and includes sensations of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. The difference of knowledge among beings of different classes and kinds, as well as among individuals belonging to the same class, are due to the operation of the law of Karma, for the potentiality for infinite knowledge, that is omniscience, being the very nature of the soul, some outside influence is needed to prevent its becoming an actuality of experience. The nature of this external influence, that is, of the force of karmas, is fully explained in such works as the Gommatasara. It follows from this that knowledge really arises from within, and education is merely a drawing forth (from e, out, and duco, to lead) from the depths of consciousness. As the bondage of karma is loosened, new impressions are set free to manifest themselves, widening the field of perception and knowledge, by bringing the soul into touch with something to which it had remained irresponsive hitherto ; and finally, when all the perception--and knowledge-obstructing bonds of karma are destroyed, omniscience is attained by the potential becoming the actual. That the Biblical Trinity does not represent actual beings, but is a secret doctrine imparted in concealed metaphor, like the legend of the 'fall', is clear from the very constitution of the Trinitarian Board, which comprises (1) a father, (2) a son, and (3) a ghost. The primary conception of the Holy Trinity is that of three different aspects of life, which is by nature endowed with potential Divinity. This potential Divinity being the ideal as well as the source, or substantive cause, of the subsequent actual Godhood of the soul is the first member--the Fatherof the Holy Trinity. The Son naturally represents the Soul that has conquered Death and obtained that world and the resurrection from che dead'. The third member of the Holy Trinity is the spirit that makes us holy. As already seen in an earlier chapter, rigid self-control and self-denial are necessary to make us whole in which consist our salvation and holiness. When the individual will is developed to perfection in renunciation and self-denial, then is the final emancipation obtained, enabling the Soul to enter nirvana as pure radiant Effulgence, perfect and whole and unencumbered with any kind of material bodies. This perfect bodiless soul is also itself the Holy Ghost. Being whole and perfect in renunciation It is holy and as a pure bodiless Spirit. It is a ghost, whence the term-the Holy Ghost. From our discussion so far we have seen how the natural but mostly fear-smothered craving of every soul is to attain to that degree

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OCTOBER, 1967 of happiness which knows nothing of imperfection or desire; and we have also seen how that state of happiness is not only possible to be attained, but also not far to seek. Step by step have we been led to consider two of the most important religions in the world, that is, Christianity and Vedanta, and by the comparative study of their doctrines have been enabled to draw certain highly important conclusions as to the nature of the samsara and the God which we have aspired to become. But we have not yet found a true definition of God or nirvana or even of the nature and causes of the soul's bondage, anywhere in other of the two creeds we have so throughly examined, not destructively, but constructively. Vedanta even considers it beneath its dignity to give a thought to the individual, and ascribes its very idea to illusion, pure and simple, while Christianity is altogether silent on the point. The diverse metaphysical theories also that have been examined by us thus far are found inadequate to explain the nature of the world process and incapable of leading to the realisation of the aim in view--happiness. Mythology and mysticism might, no doubt, possess the truth but it seems safer to keep them at a respectable distance than to run the risk of being lost in their labyrinthine mazes. We thus see that it is only an inkling of the truth that we have been able to get thus far, and that if we wish to satisfy our understanding on all those important problems which constitute true jnana--and jnana is the pre-requisite of moksa we must turn to some other source able to satisfy the enquiring soul. (To be concluded)

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OURSELVES kesigoyamao niccam tasmi asi samagame suyasilasamukkariso mahathathabinicchao tosia parisa sabba sammaggam samubatthiya samthuya te pasiyamtu bhayabam kesigoyame In that meeting of Kesi and Gautama knowledge and virtuous conduct were for ever brought to eminence and subjects of the greatest importance were settled. The whole assembly was greatly pleased and fixed their thoughts on the right way. They praised Kesi and Gautama, "May the venerable ones show us favour.' -Uttaradhyayana Sutra Kesi was of the order of Parsva and Gautama was the disciple of Mahavira. When they knew that their followers were talking about the differences in the preachings of the two Tirthankaras they wanted to meet and resolve the differences. And actually they did meet and resolve the differences making the congregration strong and solid. The implication of this is that whenever there arises any difference or dispute, the leaders of the monastic order should meet and resolve the same.

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52 But it is unfortunate that the posterity derived little benefit from the example set by these two leaders. Elsewhere in this issue is reviewed a book by V. A. Sangave where the author has drawn pointed attention to the divisions and subdivisions, their quality and quantity, in an otherwise numerically small Jaina community. This community has not only been a victim of a few major schisms that introduced the wellmarked distinctions between the white-robed and the sky-clad, or imageworshippers and followers of living monks, what is worse, within each one of these divisions, there are innumerable, often countless, subdivisions and fragmentations, both vertical and horizontal. If one takes a serious look at these, one wonders how a house so much divided from within manages to preserve its existence, howsoever moribund, on earth. One plausible explanation perhaps is that the differences are more at the superficial than at the fundamental level. For are not all Jainas, irrespective of denominations, followers or the same masters? These could not have left different instructions or different scriptures for their different followers. These differences in so far as they are extant are therefore a late interpolation in the fabric of the Jaina community. A little initiative, a little effort can perhaps bring these different denominations much closer to one another. But that initiative is to come from the spiritual leadership. If they themselves can enter into a dialogue and are not haunted by personal ambition for leadership, the creation of an universal church of Jainism may not be a distant dream as it was not in the days of Kesi and Gautama. JAIN JOURNAL

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R. N. 12121/66 Autumn 1967 MEGNA JUTE MILLS LTD. Foremost Suppliers of BROADLOOM HESSIANS 16 STRAND ROAD CALCUTTA-1 Phone : 22-1661 Printed and published by Moti Chand Bhura for Jain Bhawan, P-25 Kalakar Street, Calcutta-7, at The Technical & General Press, 17 Crooked Lane, Calcutta-1. Editor : Ganesh Lalwani.