Shrutsagar 2016 02 Volume 02 09

SR No.: 525307
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hiren K Doshi
Publisher: Acharya Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir Koba
Publication Year: 2016
Total Pages: 36
Language: Gujarati
Classification: Magazine, India_Shrutsagar, & India
File Size: 4 MB

Page 14

फरवरी-२०१६
श्रुतसागर
from our observation of varying modes of behavior of such living beings. The stage of actual development of one living being being different from that of another, living beings are classified in many ways in the Jain philosophy, the simplest classification is based on the number of organs of sense they have developed.
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Besides the category of living being, there is one of inanimate substances. These are matter, two kinds of ether (one, the fulcrum of motion, the other, the fulcrum of rest), and space. We must bear in mind that ether and space are not matter in the Jain view. Matter has various qualities and relation ships which the former do not possess. Time is also called a substance in a figurative sense, a generalization of the moving activities of things and beings.
Every living being, from the minutest to the highest embodied one, is the centre of innumerable potential and actual energies, which are called karmas in the Jain Philosophy. The word “Karma" has an interesting history. In the Vedas it means the performance of sacrifices, offering of oblations to nature-gods and names of deceased ancestors. Karma-marga-the path of works-is nothing but ritualistic Brahmanism. In the words of sir Monier Williams: "Not even Jewish literature contains so many words relating to sacrifice as the literature of the Brahmins. The due presentation of sacrificial offerings formed the very kernel of all religious service. Hymn, praise and prayer, preaching, teaching, and repetition of the sacred words of Scripture were only subsidiary to this act. Every man throughout his whole life rested his whole hopes on continually offering oblations of some kind to the gods; and the burning of his body at death was held to be the last offering of himself in fire (antyeshti)" In later Literature, Karma, in addition to the above meaning, also meant duty an good and bad actions. In the Jain Literature we have a fuller meaning. It is any energy which an embodied being generates be it vital, mental, or moral-and which keeps him in the mundane world-the Sansara. Karma, in short, is the whole Sansaric make-up of an embodied being. It is entirely divested of the sacrifice idea. Karmas which keep the individual in a backward condtition are known as Papa; those which help hem in advancement are Punya. The Jain philosophy gives a