Jaina Philosophy

SR No.: 006901
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Virchand R Gandhi, Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: World Jain Confederation
Publication Year: 2009
Total Pages: 298
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 5 MB

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The Jaina Philosophy born in the northern part of Western India. His parents were Jainas. His mother once took him with her to a Jaina monk, when he was six years old. The monk was seated in the monastery on a tablelike raised seat with a blanket spread over it. He looked at the boy with some interest, but the latter instead of performing the usual obeisance to the monk made himself comfortable on the seat by the monk's side.
This, the monk took to be a sign that the boy was going to be a great man. So he asked the mother if she would not give her child to him as his disciple and explained to her the reasons of his proposal. The mother oscillated for some time between parental love and a desire that the boy should be a great benefactor of the Jaina sect. Ultimately reason triumphed over emotion and she gave her child to the monk to be initiated as his disciple. Hemachandra thus entered the life of monk hood at the early age of six. As years went on, he became proficient in the sacred love and at the age of twenty-one he became the spiritual head of the Jaina people. History further tells us that he converted Kumarapala, a prince of Gujarat, to the Jaina faith. He also became the author of many works, the estimated bulk of which is 35,000,000 couplets, of 32 syllables each. He lived 84 years.
One wonders how he was able to compose such a large quantity of new literature. Tradition tells us that it was the usual practice of this great scholar to keep about him several scribes. After breakfast, he would ask about forty of them to take their seats around a tank of ink, with pen and paper.
He would then walk round the tank and first dictate to scribe No. 1 the first verse of a work on Grammar which he would be then composing. While No. 1 is writing it down, the monk would move on, go to scribe No. 2 and dictate to him the first verse of a work on Prosody. In this way, he would dictate to the forty scribes, one after another, the first verse of each of the forty new works which he would be composing at the same time. Having finished
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