Jaina Concept of Omniscience

SR No.: 001547
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ramjee Singh
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1974
Total Pages: 258
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Knowledge
File Size: 17 MB

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THE BASIC POSTULATE OF THE THEORY
sticism (samsayarāda & ajñānavāda) etc, But none of these theories is broad based and successful as the karma theory. This explains the popularity and continuous influence of the karmic theory in Indian life and thought from ancient times down to tne present age. It is not merely an accident of history that only the Cārvākas do not accept the karmic theory.
There are two important schools of karmic idealists-Pra. vartaka and Nivartaka, one emphasising and the other minimising the value of participating in worldly affairs. The former school is more attached to life and the social order and therefore upholds the banner of dharma and deprecates adharma. The practice of dharma leads to a more happy and gracious life here and hereafter in accordance with the merit and demerit acquired. This is the axle of the wheel of exist. ence. So, according to them, there is no importance attached to liberation. They concentrate on the three purusārthas only ie., duty (dharma), material wealth (artha) and enjoyment (kāma). This view is upheld by the Vedicist Mimāṁsakas and ritualists. However, the śramanic schools of Buddhism and Jainism as weil as the vedic schools of Nyāya-Vaiśesikas and Sānkhya-yoga stick to the ideal of Moksa. They recognise karma to be the cause of bondage and advocate freedom from karma as the means to salvation. The Nyāya-Vaiseșikas, however, hold that God's instrumentality is required for the frui. tion of karma9 which remains as an unseen potency (adrsta) consisting in the merit and demerit of the soul. The Sankhya does not accept the hypothesis of a creating 1 śvara. The God of Yoga is also no dispensasor of the fruits of action but simply the object of worship (dhyāna). Personal God, though dispensasor of fruits, has no ontological status in Advaita Vedānta.10 The Jainas cɔmbine the atomism of the Nyāya
.8 Samyutta-Nikāya, XLIV; Digha-Nikāya (Sāmajjña-phala sutta); Sütra
kstānga, I. 12.2. 9 Gotama, Nyaya-Sūtra, IV. 1.21; Prasastapāda, Prašasta pāda-Bhāşya,
p. 48. 10 Śankara, Brahma-Sutra (s. B.), II. 1.26.