Jaina Psychology

SR No.: 006570
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mohanlal Mehta
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar
Publication Year: 1955
Total Pages: 238
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 13 MB

Page 166

ACTIVITY AND ITS CONTROL
what is the sense in rejecting the mixed existence of their activities? Existence is of no meaning if there is no activity. To say that a particular body exists without performing its respective function is to say that there is the soul but it is not conscious. In our opinion, therefore, the same is the possibility of the mixed activity of bodies as is that of their mixed existence.
II
CONTROL OF ACTIVITY
We have taken into account the general nature and specific characteristics of activity. We have also critically examined the three-fold activity of the Jainas. Now, we propose to consider in brief the Jaina account of the regulation and control of various activities. How the activities of our behaviour are controlled, regulated, and stopped? What is the motive behind it? What are the means and methods that can be utilized in this connection? These are some of the problems that are to be dealt with. In Indian psychology all such problems are discussed under the head Yoga.
149
The word 'yoga' literally means 'union'. In Vedanta it is used in the sense of the spiritual union of the individual soul with the Universal Soul. The Gītā defines yoga as that state than which there is nothing higher or worth realising and firmly rooted in which the person is never shaken even by the greatest pain. This state is free from all pain and misery. Yoga for Patañjali is nothing more than spiritual effort to attain perfection through the control of the body, sense-organs, and mind.1 The Jaina meaning of yoga, as we have mentioned, is diametrically opposite to that of Patañjali. According to the Yoga-sūtra of Patanjali, yoga is the cessation of the activities of mind',2 whereas according to the Jaina, 'the activities of body, speech, and mind are called yoga." It is nothing but the inflow of karma (asrava). That through which this inflow is
1 Indian philosophy (Dr. C. D. Sharma), p. 235.
2 Yogascittavṛittinirodhaḥ.
Yoga-sutra, I, 2.
3 Kayavānmanahkarma yogaḥ.
Tattvärtha-sūtra, VI, 1.
4 Sa asravah.
Ibid., VI, 2.