Mahavira and his Teaching

SR No.: 008019
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti
Publication Year: 1977
Total Pages: 509
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Biography, Religion, & Principle
File Size: 12 MB

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A. S. GOPANI
tion, inference and testimony as valid. As a matter of fact it is on the authority of the teachings of the omniscient liberated saints technically called the Jinas that one can have unerring knowledge about certain spiritual matters lying beyond the compass of human perception and reasoning. According to it there are as many souls as there are living bodies. Consciousness in all of them is of a varying degree. However developed the senses may be, the soul inhabiting the body has limited knowledge which becomes infinite with its innate power and happiness increased infinitefold, once the Karmic barriers are removed. Liberation is, according to it, a final goal. It is the consumation, secured with the help of the simultaneous and full cultivation of right faith, right knowledge and right conduct. Jainism believes in godhead, though not in one single God. It has respect for all opinions as it believes in every object having infinite aspects. It is a kind of realism as it takes the external world to be real and is pluralistic in nature.
The teachings of Mahāvíra were first transmitted in the form of a tradition which was later put into writing. The Angas constituting the canon are the only authoritative source containing them. Despite the occasional accretions, these Angas as also the Upārgas present an essentially correct picture of what Mahāvīra thought, spoke and did.
The foundation on which Jaina Metaphysics rests is formed of nine categories namely Jiva, Ajíva etc. The soul in its pristine purity is possessed of infinite perception, infinite knowledge, infinite bliss and infinite power. Of Jiva, there are many divisions and subdivisions.
It is the union of Jíva with the matter which is responsible for his wanderings in this worldly cycle. Karma and its intensity are the determining factors of this union. It is formed of atomic particles which behave in such a way that every change which they undergo leaves an impress which itself becomes the germ of future career. When the soul is completely stripped of the