Universal Values of Prakrit Texts

SR No.: 006701
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Prem Suman Jain
Publisher: Bahubali Prakrit Vidyapeeth and Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan
Publication Year: 2011
Total Pages: 368
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 190

[i.e the householder's] other activities involve physical matter and are successful, so his mind is satisfied in the realm of religion by physical things.
In reply to his own question about the way in which worship benefits the soul, answers: “From worship of God an auspicious karmic sentiment arise in the soul .At the time of worshiping God, the worshiper becomes humble, and sings praises of God, from which a sentiment of gratefulness becomes evident. From this gratefulness knowledge-obscuring and other karmas are destroyed, and the soul gradually advances on the path to liberation' (Cort 1995:606)In terms of the standard Jaina theory of karma, presented in the early monastic texts and elsewhere, there is something extraordinary about this statement-namely, the idea that auspicious karma actually destroys other kinds of karma.
Bhandrankar Vijay likens the householder to a thirsty traveler digging in a dry river bed, who becomes indifferent to the exertion involved because of the hope of finding water. Eventually, when he discovers it he forgets about the exertion altogether. The monk concludes: 'In the same way, there is a small amount of injury done to living creatures in the worship of God, but in the auspicious perseverance of devotion to God, that violence is the cause of great gain 20
This seems to be the tacit acknowledgement of a particularistic ethic of ahimsa. In other words, the ethical means by which you attain the same soteriological effect (destruction of karma) differs in accordance with your status (ascetic or lay); such a means is not,therefore,universally applicable. Conclusion:
It seems to W.J.Johnson that from the perspective of ethics, the standard picture of the Jain Community has been drawn as follows. At one level we picture conformity to, universal ethical demands that have clear soteriological consequences for ascetics and lay people alike. The canoni
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