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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to ash. The ash gets mixed with sand. Layer upon layer of sand turns into a mountain in some hundred thousand years. Stone turns into coal due to heat of a volcano or that within the core of earth. After a very long period, coal turns into diamond. The long journey of a piece of paper turning finally into diamond is nothing but a sequence of transformations. The fundamental ultimate particles of matter (paramāņus) within it were never destroyed. Geophysicists have proved that where the Himalayas stand today there was an ocean some thirty million years back. The name of this ocean was Tethys. Explorations have also revealed that the area covered today by Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean was at one time a continent called Gondawana.
Thus the creation of this universe and the visible physical world is spontaneous. It came about due to integration and disintegration of ultimate particles of matter and it is perinanent as well as impermanent or transitional by nature.
The Jain belief about the sentient life entity is that there are infinite beings in this world and their inherent nature and attributes are same. Every being has the inherent potential to become Siddha or supreme-soul but it does not manifest itself in each being. The weakness lies within. Under the influence of attachment, aversion, fondness, and other passions, a being, since time immemorial, has been attracting karma particles. A fusion like bondage of soul and karma has been manifesting itself. Each being has a natural tendency to acquire happiness but it always gets misery due to this bondage of karmas. The intrinsic attribute of soul will appear in the form of knowledge and bliss when it is free of the bondage of karmas. But all the efforts he makes to attain happiness increase his miseries because his efforts are misplaced. The efforts are in the wrong direction. He seeks pleasure in things other than self therefore his perception is dependent on others and is outwardly. If he shifts his perception from the other to the self and seeks happiness within, he will acquire it. The causes of his illusion are attachment, aversion, and fondness. If he gets rid of these, the bonds of acquired and incoming karmas will be broken. His soul will get liberated. The soul that is free of the bondage of karmas is called the supreme-soul. Its birth-death, sorrows-miseries are completely destroyed and it dwells in the inner bliss infinitely. It becomes all-knowing and all-perceiving. Infinite power appears within
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