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The Cosmopolitan Vision of Yaśovijaya Gaņi : 75 view (epoche) is the means to achieve that tranquility of mind (ataraxia) necessary for happiness (eudaimonia). Tolerance and the Critical Evaluation of Others
Paul Dundas (2004) has shown how, in the Dharmaparikṣā, Yaśovijaya uses the concept of neutrality as the basis for an irenic strategy towards other religions. Followers of other religious traditions can be considered as conforming to the true (i.e. Jaina) path if their attitude towards the doctrines of their own tradition which is sufficiently non-dogmatic. Dundas worries, reasonably enough, that in spite of being inclusivist, such a position nevertheless does still assert the superiority of the Jaina path. Perhaps that is why, in the Adhyātmopanişat-prakarana, Yaśovijaya advances another strategy. He now argues that the virtues to which Jainism gives particular prominence, namely impartiality, neutrality, and nononesidedness, are in fact already present in the various non-Jaina systems, albeit in an only implicit form. For all the systems seek an "overarching organisation" when it comes to sorting out and arranging their internal doctrinal claims. All therefore do embody the quintessential Jaina principles and virtues in their own theoretical practice, whether or not those principles and virtues receive any explicit mention in the official meta-theory. Let me examine this idea in more detail. Yaśovijaya argues that no body of 'theory' (śāstra), whether Jaina or non-Jaina, is to be accepted merely on the basis of sectarian interest. Instead, the theory should be subject to testing, just as the purity of a sample of gold is determined by tests involving rubbing, cutting and heating. I2 In a body of theory, the relevant test is to see whether the various prescriptive and prohibitive statements pertaining to some one issue ‘rub together', that is to say, whether they cohere with one another and pull in the same direction. For example, in Jainism the prescriptions concerning religious meditation and the prohibitions on the use of violence are coordinate and together pull in the direction of mokṣa." In practice, of course, no reasonably large and complex
| SR No. | 525092 |
| Book Title | Sramana 2015 04 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Sundarshanlal Jain, Ashokkumar Singh |
| Publisher | Parshvanath Vidhyashram Varanasi |
| Publication Year | 2015 |
| Total Pages | 210 |
| Language | Hindi |
| Classification | Magazine, India_Sramana, & India |
| File Size | 15 MB |