Guidelines to Mahavir Darshan

SR No.: 006758
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Satshrutseva Sadhna Kendra
Publisher: Satshrut Seva Sadhna Kendra
Publication Year: 1970
Total Pages: 70
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 4 MB

Page 59

2 : PART V
GUIDELINES TO MAHAVIR-DARSHAN
Religion in Jainism is not blind faith. Nor is it emotional worship inspired by fear or wonder. It is the intuition of the inherent purity of consciousness, will and bliss of the self. The approximate Jaina equivalents of religion, all have as their common connotation: “ intuitive love of truth". This love of truth, inherent in each self, requires spiritual exertion for its manifestation. Once manifested, it will lead the self to liberation sooner or later. The dawn of this intuition is accompanied by a radical change of outlook, enabling one to realize the utter unimportance of the world. This intuition is mystical in the sense that it comes as a momentary flash and demolishes, as if by magic, perverted assessment of worldly values and attachment to them. . Another feature of this religious experience is the intuition of the inviolability of the individual self. What the Upanishads have achieved by recognizing the identity of the individual with the universe and Buddhism has accomplished by non-recognition of the individuality itself, Jainism has sought to achieve by stressing this inviolability. This is the fundamental basis of disagreement between these three systems of thought.
The moral principles of Jainism are evolved in the light of the religious experience. The inviolable autonomy of the individual rules out subordination to another indivi, ual and, moreover, implies the principle of non-violence as the natural determinant of social relationship. Thus society, according to Jainism, is a co-ordinated aggregate of autonomous units and depends for its own well-being upon that of every individual No individual being subordinate to any other, and each being entitled to independent self-expression, Jain sm rejects the patronizing of one individual or class by another. The gradation of society into classes, therefore, is not in keeping with the spirit of Jainism. It is even regarded theoretically as impossible for one individual to torture another, though this undeniably sometimes happens. It is, on the contrary, recognized that encroachment ur on the autonomy of another individual means ultimately an encroachment upon one's own. The scripture thus declares : “Thou art he whom thou intendest to kill ! Thou art he whom thou intendest to tyrannize over.” An individual accordingly is required for his own sake to refrain from violence.