Jain Journal 1981 10

SR No.: 520064
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1981
Total Pages: 51
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

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the kalpa which will also last for 21000 years51 and at the end of which the cycle of time will revolve again.
JAIN JOURNAL
In the fifth phase of the kalpa we are in a miserable condition. "Today we are no longer gaints, indeed, we are so small, both physically and spiritually that the religion of the Jainas has become too difficult, and there will be no more Tirthankaras in the present cycle. Moreover, as time moves on to the conclusion of our present descending age, the scale of humanity will decline still further, the religion of the Jinas will disappear, and the earth, finally, will be an unspeakable morass of violence, beastiality and grief."52
In this situation of the phase of the kalpa, when everything is dwindling away, there seems to be no possibility for any one to attain mokşa in this world. This conclusion is based on the fact that in this kalpa, "after the 24 Tirthankaras and 11 Ganadharas (the immediate disciples of the Tirthankaras) had attained the kevala jñāna (ommiscience), only Jambu (c. 500 B.C.) was able to attain it and none else."53 Now, in the Jaina theory, one must attain this kevala jñāna before one can attain the mokşa. If such jñāna has not been within the reach of any body since the time of Jambu,it is hard to expect that it will be attainable in the recent time full of commercial mindedness and selfish attitude which are contrary to the requirements of the great five rules of behaviour.
Further, the fifth and the sixth phases of each kalpa are of shorter duration than its other phases. Even this shorter duration is of 21000 years. If this is the state of things, how can a man of our time attain mokşa when he has an average length of life of 45 to 50 years only? Hence, I feel, there is no escape from Dr. Zimmer's conclusion, "This (Jainism) is a philosophy of the profoundest pessimism."54
1 See S. A. Jains' translation of Sri Pujyapada's Sarvarthasiddhi, commentary on sloka 27 of chapter III.
52 Zimmer H., Op. Cit., pp. 226-227.
5 Sen, A. C., Op. Cit., p. 16.
54 Zimmer, H., Op. Cit., p. 227. I openly admit that I have not been able to find a way out of this reasoning and have not been able to reconcile. [Though there will be no Kevali or Jina in this period in Bharata and Airavata ksetra, one who will entitle himself for kevalihood will be born in Mahavideha from where he will be liberated. --Editor]