Studies in Jaina Philosophy

SR No.: 001616
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society
Publication Year: 1951
Total Pages: 366
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, Knowledge, Yoga, & Epistemology
File Size: 9 MB

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JAINA YOGA
(CH.
doctrine of gunasthāna including the conception of Godhead and the first attainment of samyag-darśana, (II) the doctrine of dhyāna as contained in the Āgamas and the works of Umāsvāti, Kundakunda, Pujyapāda, Jinabhadra, Haribhadra, Subhacandra and Hemacandra, and (III) Haribhadra's comparative study and evaluation of various yoga-doctrines.
I
THE DOCTRINE OF GUŅASTHĀNA The soul has inherent capacity for emancipation. But this capacity remains dormant and inactive unless and until it gets an opportunity for expression. The soul is roused to active spiritual exertion when it is reminded of the great mission that it has to fulfil. The reminder sometimes comes from the instructions of those who have realized the truth and revealed it to the public. Sometimes the soul gets hold of he truth automatically without any outside help. The Jainas do not believe either in the eternal revelation of the truth like the Mimāṁsakas and the Vedāntins, or in its revelation by a Supreme Divinity like the Yoga and the Nyāya-Vaiseșika systems. But they believe in the inherent capacity of the soul to realize the truth even in the absence of any revelation. The capacity to reveal and effectively preach the truth, however, does not belong to all the enlightened and omniscient souls. It is only those rare souls, who have acquired the potency of revealing the truth and establishing a religious community (tirthakrttva) by their moral and virtuous activities of the past life, that are capable of revealing the truth and preaching it to the world at large on their attainment of omniscience (kevalajñāna). Such souls become the tirthankaras, founders of religion, who are the embodiment of the best and the highest virtues that the human mind can conceive of, the fullest expression of the potentialities of embodied existence. This is the Jaina! conception of Godhead. God, according to the Jainas, is the symbol of all that is good and great, moral and virtuous. But he is not the creator or the preserver or the destroyer. He is not in any sense responsible for the destiny of the universe or the individual. Nor is he capable of granting grace to any individual. Nor is he himself eternally free, but has worked out his own freedom exactly in the same way as the others do. The difference between the ordinary omniscient
1 For enumeration of such activities see TSū, VI. 23: darśanavisuddhir vinayasampannatā śīlavrateşv anaticāro 'bhīkşnami jñānopayoga-samvegau saktitas tyāgatapasi sangha-sādhu-samadhi-vaiyāvsttyakaranam arhadācārya-bahuśruta-pravacanabhaktiravaśya kāparihāņir mārga prabhāvaná pravacanavatsalatvam iti tīrthakȚttvasya.