Jain Siddhant Bhaskar

SR No.: 529551
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Siddhant Bhavan
Publisher: Jain Siddhant Bhavan
Total Pages: 417
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Siddhant Bhaskar, & India
File Size: 10 MB

Page 91

[ Vol. I.
the culture of the spirit and not of the body, that it is the spirit that abides, and it is the body that at some time or other has to be given up. That such a faith appealed to ancient South Indian peoples, thus wise, is clear from the following extracts from the Inscriptions of Sravana Belgola, the greatest and most ancient centre of Jainism in South India :
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JAINA ANTIQUARY.
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(a) The dense smoke of inequity spreading wide and filling space like the huge mountain of ignorance, the fool who is entangled in the great and delusive troubles of family falling under the power of kings, goes to ruin " ".
(b) "An ignorant man, manifestly corrupting his mind with passion and enemity may fail in devotion to the Spirit, the form of all wisdom, the ever peaceful; but how can a wise man for a moment strive for any other end?" 3
(c) Thou having fixed thy mind unshaken on the indwelling spirit, love and all the desires of sense have fled away, the happiness of perfect spiritual knowledge increases, and by the complete destruction of sin, thou hast attained the state of final beatitude, Gommata deva, and unending happiness'
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(d) He to whom all actions are directed, removed above all opposi-. tion, highly exalted, free from ignorance, without an equal, free from desire, of a glory beyond expression or thought, having subdued the power of the world, the highest,-may his glory dwell in my mind " ".
These extracts emphasise the cardinal duty and principle of selfperfective effort through the conquest of sense desire and the selfexaltation about the distractions of samsara as the highest goal of religion. Jainism is thus not only a religion of strength, but of "knowledge" (jnana) and self-discipline (siksha).
1 A large village situated in 12°51' north latitude and 76°33' east longitude in the Chennarayapatna Taluuq of the Hassan District of the Mysore State.
2 Epigraphia Carnatica Vol. II Sravana Balgola Insps No. 3, (one of the earliest on the Hill.)
3 Ibid No. 54, dated 1128 A. D.
4 Ibid No. 85, dated 1180 A. D.
5 Ibid No. 108, dated 1433 A. D.