Jaina Mysticism and Other Essays

SR No.: 006933
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy
Publication Year: 2002
Total Pages: 166
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 111

Mahāvratas, Gunavratas and Śikṣāvratas and so on. This means that Jaina ethics accepts the possibility that sometimes these general moral principles may be inadequate to the complexities of the situation and in this case a direct consideration of the particular action without reference to general principles is necessary.
· May be, keeping this in view, Samantabhadra argues that truth is not to be spoken when by so doing the other is entangled in miseries;' Svami Kumar in the Kārttikeyānuprekşā disallows the purchase of things at low price in order to maintain the vow of non-stealing. According to ruleutilitarianism exceptions can not be allowed. This implies that Jaina ethics does not allow superstitious, rule-worship but at the same time, prescribed that utmost caution is to be taken in breaking the rule, which has been built up and tested by the experience of generations. Thus according to Jaina ethics, acts are logically prior to rules and the rightness of the action is situational. Here
It is of capital importance to note here that according to Jaina ethics, there is no such thing as a moral obligation which is not an obligation to bring about the greatest good. To call an act a duty, is dependent on the fact of producing a greater balance of good over evil in the universe than any other alternative. Duty is not self-justifying; it is not an end in itself. "The very nature of duty is to aim beyond itself. There can no more be a duty to act, if there is no good to attain by it, than to think if there is no truth to be won by thinking."7 Thus, duty is an extrinsic good, good as a means; this does not deprive duty of its importance in ethical life, just as health does not become unimportant by its being extrinsic good. (The pursuance of Aņuvratas for the householder and the Mahāvratas for the Muni may be regarded as dutiful actions).
In view of the above, it seems that Jaina ethics will look with a critical eye at the deontologism of Priphard and Ross. According to Ross, there are self-evidently binding prima facie duties such as duties of gratitude, duties of self-improvement, 104
Jaina Mysticism and other essays