Jain Journal 2002 01

SR No.: 520145
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 2002
Total Pages: 84
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 5 MB

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Vol. XXXVI
JAIN JOURNAL
No. 3 January
4.
JAIN MONASTICISM
SWAMI BRAHMESHANANDA
Jainism is pre-eminently a monastically oriented religion. According to Jain philosophy the goal of human life is mokṣa, liberation from the transmigratory cycle of births and deaths. Perverted views, nonrestraint, carelessness, passions, and activity are the five causes of bondage1 and these can be totally eliminated by the rigorous practice of a discipline possible only to a monk. So great is the emphasis laid on monasticism that to renounce the world and to become a monk is one of the prime aspirations of every Jain lay devotee.2 Kumar goes to the extent of saying that Jainism is simply a monastic organization, an Order of begging friars somewhat similar to Dominicans or Franciscans in medieval Europe, and that the Jain religion is purely an ethical system arising out of its monasticism.3
Origin
There are various theories regarding the origin of Jain monasticism. According to orthodox belief, Jainism is eternal. The various similarities between the three monastic systems which have arisen in India, viz. Upanisadic, Buddhistic and Jain, have led some scholars to believe that Jainism was an offshoot or degeneration of the Upanisadic concepts. But leading Indologists have conclusively proved that
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1. मिथ्यादर्शन - अविरति प्रमाद-कषाय-योगाः बन्धहेतवः । Tattvārtha- Sutra (of Umāsvāti). Text with Hindi exposition (following Svetambara tradition) by Sukhalalji Sanghvi. Jain Samskriti Samsodhana Mandala, 1952, 2nd Ed. VIII, i.
2. Thānanga Sutra, in 'Angasuttāni, Jain Visva Bharati, Lanadu, Vikram Samvat 2031. III, 4:210.
2002
3. Prof. J.A. Kumar, quoted by S.B. Deo in History of Jain Monachism, from inscription and literature. Deccan College Dissertation series No. 17. Deccan College Research Institute, Poona 6. 1956. p. 47.
S.B. Deo. History of Jain Monachism, op.cit., p. 52.