Harmless Soul

SR No.: 001196
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: W J Johnson, Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas
Publication Year: 1995
Total Pages: 372
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Principle
File Size: 20 MB

Page 238

224 Harmless Souls movement or continuous balancing act in Jainism between excessive formalisation, with its threat to the personal or soteriological, and excessive internalisation, with its threat to the social or corporate identity. Given the compilatory nature of early Jaina texts (including the Pravacanasāra), the two extremes may frequently be reached in the same text. It fell to the scholastic commentators to attempt to compensate for and correct this polarisation. The doctrine of the two naya, if not conclusive, is at least a holding operation in this struggle. In terms of the present analysis, the vyavahāra-naya would thus embody the social view while the niscaya-naya would represent the personal or soteriological perspective.
6.6 Socio-religious roles in the Pravacanasāra
It remains to comment briefly on the Jaina socio-religious hierarchy implicit in the Pravacanasāra, and on Kundakunda's attitude to the laity. (The purpose of this section is simply to make explicit what may be readily inferred from the material already treated.)
The individual's place in the religious hierarchy, and thus his social role, is decided for Kundakunda by his state of consciousness. It is always a particular upayoga (manifestation of consciousness) which underlies and informs any external 'emblem' of religious status; and, in theory, it is to the underlying internal state that any question about an individual's status should be referred. In practice, the problem of gauging 'inner-states' leads, of course, to reliance upon external indicators. Nevertheless, Kundakunda is unequivocal about the meaninglessness of external practice unless it derives from and is informed by internal purity. 131
The equations are as follows: śuddha-upayoga is the
131 See above, passim.