Compendium of Jainism

SR No.: 001202
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T K Tukol, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Prasaranga Karnatak University Dharwar
Publication Year: 1980
Total Pages: 352
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Philosophy
File Size: 17 MB

Page 347

MODERN THOUGHT
335
advanced that sexual relationship is considered as purely a problem of human emotions and agreeable desires: it is taken out of the moral plane. Contraceptives have been accepted as natural preventivesfor unwanted births. Even in India with all its religious and ethical background, abortion has been legalised and the use of contraceptives is loudly advocated by Government agencies to prevent increase in population. The vow of celibacy as preached by Jainism prohibits sexual contacts with women other than one's own wife. Attachment to a wife should be reasonable, as lust and passion result in hiṁsā to the self. Mahatma Gandhi who was, as is well-known, influenced in his early boyhood by the teachings of Jainism, advocated that celibacy meant selfrestraint, to be broken only for procreation. His view of family planning is based on self-restraint rather than on the use of contraceptives which has been assuming greater importance dayby-day as resistant to growth of population. All religions except perhaps Islam have regarded marriage as a sacred tie binding the parties to it for life. Divorces have become very frequent in the foreign countries and marriage contracts are for fixed periods. A religion which ernphasises the inner purity of each individual, both in thought and action, cannot be expected to toe the line of licence.
I do not like to deal at length with the doctrine of Syādvāda and Nayavāda which are well-known doctrines of Jainism. The idea is that the nature of being is intrinsically indefinite as it is subject to origination, continuance and destruction. From this point, every metaphysical proposition is right from a particular point of view and is bound to differ from another point of view. There are seven forms of metaphysical propositions, each indicating a point of view. The doctrine has been subjected to to criticism from other religionists as pessimistic, uncertain, dogmatic and so on.
I have discussed in the previous Chapter the pros and cons of the doctrine of Syādvāda which Prof. Dasgupta has called “Relative Pluralism". It stands for harmony of apparently