First Steps to Jainism Part 1

SR No.: 001640
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sancheti Asso Lal, Manakmal Bhandari
Publisher: Sancheti Trust Jodhpur
Publication Year: 2002
Total Pages: 300
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Religion, & Education
File Size: 10 MB

Page 41

The Seven Fundamentals 27
To conclude this part it will be appropriated to quote a Sanskrit couplet translated into English which describes the quality of a liberated soul:
Omniscience, boundless vision, illimitable righteousness, infinite strength, perfect bliss, indestructibility, existence without form, a body that is neither light nor heavy-such are the characteristics of liberated souls.
14. Conclusion-Before closing this chapter it may be recapitulated that just as the first fundamental is soul, the seventh fundamental is also soul. Though the first described the worldly as well as the liberated souls the last one deals with only liberated souls. Actually apart from the second fundamental i.e. non-living matter entire chapter and all the fundamentals describe different stages and process of evolution of soul in relation to karma pudgals. In this process the entire secret of existence, birth and death, pain and pleasure, difference between different individuals, mystery of chance and luck become resolved in the orderly pattern 'of behaviour of the soul. Also the pathway to solve the problem of human suffering is clearly demarcated and defined. Indeed the whole arrangement of the soul's association with matter, attachment between the two, prevention of attachment and separation are all dependent upon the soul's voluntary and involuntary efforts. It is elementary, simple and automatic that it does not require any intermediary like God or a Supreme Being. Jainism introduces an element of directness in the law of compensation or the rule of cause and effect and applies it to the spritual world.
15. Simplicity and orderliness of Jain theory of the seven fundamentals is apparent and it is in tune with the theory of beginningless Universe and animistic belief which are essentially simple and direct in approach. These are all in accordance with natural laws which are also simple in essence and direct in approach-as nature itself abhors complication.