Introduction to Jainism and its Culture

SR No.: 001605
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Balbhadra Jain
Publisher: Kundkund Gyanpith Indore
Publication Year: 2002
Total Pages: 334
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Religion, & Culture
File Size: 21 MB

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Emotions like pleasure, pain, and tenseness are part of these states like lust and anger. This can be explained by giving an example. A person has a bag full of money. He is extremely fond of it. He has attachment for it. A bandit tries to snatch it by force. The owner of the bag makes all efforts to save and protect it. Filled with anger he also tries to kill the bandit. If he is weak he trembles with fear. He begs and pleads so that the bandit does not deprive him of the bag or returns it if he has already snatched. In spite of all this if the bandit takes away the bag, the owner lodges a complaint with the police and resorts to fair or foul means to get the bag of money back. He is in a state of great mental tension caused by these feelings of attachment, aversion, fondn
ess, anger, and fear. His misery is in direct proportion of the intensity of this tension. The tension has its origin in the apprehension of loosing the money and/or the intense desire to retrieve it. This tension or stress manifests in misery. If a third person helps the owner in protecting or retrieving that money, feelings of love and friendship for the helper are evoked in the mind of the owner; this is attachment. When he gets back the money he is filled with great joy. If he does not get the money back even after all his efforts he feels miserable, gloomy, and dejected. This love, joy, misery, gloom, or dejection causes intense mental tension that, in turn, is the source of misery. No matter what, irrespective of the variety of the causes the form of tension is just one. The gravity of sorrow depends on the intensity of mental tension.
The aforesaid example makes it clear that sentience, knowledge, and bliss are attributes of soul. In some fraction these attributes are ever present in the soul. Therefore, these form the inherent nature of soul. Attachment-aversion, fondness, etc. are variant states. These are ever changing. These are impediments in acquisition and experiencing of knowledge and bliss by soul. Thus they are not the inherent attributes of soul but its corrupted manifestations or perversions. They are neither soul nor its attributes or inherent nature. These pervert variants are devoid of knowledge; they neither know themselves nor other things. These are not born out of knowledge; they are born out of ignorance. These pervert variants are devoid of bliss; they also do not have their origin in experience of bliss. They are born out of misery and cause misery as well. Knowledge breeds knowledge not misery and bliss
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