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Studies in Indian Philosophy
a material entity wherein motive is not an essential ingredient, did not make room for any compromise with the operation of the law of karma. So bhakti, avatāras and bodhisattvas play no part in Jainism, For the same reasons, while tantric philo sophy flourished in Hinduism and Buddhism, it did not find Jainism congenial which could permit any deviation from its ethics.
The Jaina doctrine of karma has remained severely indi vidualistic. The Jains along with Hindus and Buddhists strongly believe in ahimsā in fact Jainism excels the other two its rigorous practice of ahiṁsā; to its extreme limits. Tatt. vārtha sūtra VII ll specifically enjoined meditation upon maitri (benevolence) and karunā (compassion). But the materialistic nature of the karma in Jainism did not permit the more positiv: aspects of ahimsā viz, maitri (benevolence) and karunā (compassion) to degenerate into the Buddhist doctrine of punyapariāvarta, transference of merit, which is the very negation of individual moral resposibilty for one's karma. Thus the Buddhist doctrine of bodhisattvaremained alien to Jaina thought.
To sum up, tapasyā as a vital factor in the Indian way of life survives in spite of the cults of bhakti, of divine grace, of the teaching of the Buddha that austerities are futile, and tantric philosophy which not only discounts all austrities but but encourage a bohemian and permisstve way of life because of the unique Jaina doctrine of karma.
Notes
p.
I Quoted by S. B. Deo : History of Jaina Monichism, Poona, 1955,
212 f.n. 375. 2 H. JACOBI. Sacred Books of the East Vol. XLV. 3 Jacobi : ibid Vol. XXII. 4 Jacobi : ibid Vol. XLV. 5 Jacobi : SB.E. Vol. XLV p. 399 fn. 6. 6 A. N. Upadhyae (ed) Pravacanasära, agas, Gujarat 1964.
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