Jainism and Democracy

SR No.: 001645
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Indra Chandra Shastri
Publisher: I A S S Jain Conference New Delhi
Total Pages: 184
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Religion, & society
File Size: 8 MB

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34
JAINISM AND DEMOCRACY
and such other virtues are recommended as devine other virtues are not essentials of morality. They were easliy over looked when they conflected with material interest.
oner.
The ascetic tradition framed its code of morality mainly for the recluse who is free from social obligations. In this tradition the life of a house-holder is an excuse, allowed to the weak lacking in strength to follow the path of an ascetic. Thus possession and prosperity, (a virtue for the house-holder), were thought as sin for the ascetic. On the other hand Brahmanical ethics lays emphasis on the life of a house-holder. While framing a code, it kept in view the family life. The life of an ascetic, there was the life of retirement, of a pensiThe Vedic tradition believed in the social unit, where the individual was only a part; forefeiting all its interests and privileges in the welfare of society. On the other hand, the ascetic tradition held the individual in itself, as a unit. The Society, it contended, was formed for the comfort and development of the individual. In the Vedic tradition the individual is meant for society, while in the ascetic tradition society is meant for the individual. Later, when the two traditions got mixed and the synthesis of the two framed a new culture, all the social as well as individual virtues got their proper place. The ascetic tradition, so far emphasising a negative aspect only took the positive side too into considerations and the vedic tradition, on the other hand accepted spiritual development ast he ultimate aim of life.
This compromise between prosperity and renunciation was not possible in external behaviour. Consequently, the qualities of heart came into forefront. The