Book Title: Agam 24 Chhed 01 Nishith Sutra Part 01 Sthanakvasi
Author(s): Amarmuni, Kanhaiyalal Maharaj
Publisher: Amar Publications

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Page 27
________________ 19 and tapas of mind (ābhyantara tapas) The mental tapas contains various items, as confession of sins and penance, monastic duties, obedience, modesty, self-restraint and meditation (dhyāna). The meditation has the decisive role in ascetic life The key to the ethical harmony is : Be a person, constitute, out of your natural individuality, your true ideal or personal s If Individuality separates us, personality unites us with our fellows. True human self-hood is a universal law, a universal truth. To conclude in the words of the German Jainologist Jacobi, "The asceticism of the Jainas is of a more original character; it chiefly aims at the purging of soul from the impurities of Karman. Jainism may have refined the asceticism then current in India ; it certainly rejected many extravagances, such as the voluntary inflicting of pains; but it did not alter its character as a whole. It perpetuated an older or more original phase of asceticism than the Brahmanical Yoga, and carried us back to an older stratum of religious life in which we can still detect relics of primitive speculation in the shape of such crude notions as I have had occasion to mention in the course of my paper."1 The source books of asceticism or monachism are the Angas and the Mūlasūtras of the Svetāmbaras. The twentyfourth Tirtharikara Mahāvīra and his disciples used to move about with huge number of followers, with a pious mission combined with stirling devotion to spread the gospel of Mahāvira and his predecessor Pārsvanātha to impart the knowledge of life. The purification of life process and the ways of escaping from the cycle of transmigration To have a correct picture of Jain monachism as revealed in the classical literature we may divide the whole literature into three phases : (i) The Angas and the Mūlasūtras present the state of Jain Asceticism in the sixth century B.C. right until 4th C.B.C.; particularly Ācārānga and Sūtrakstānga are the oldest among the 1. Studies in Jainism, p. 59. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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