Anandrushi Abhinandan Granth

Author(s): Vijaymuni Shastri, Devendramuni
Publisher: Maharashtra Sthanakwasi Jain Sangh Puna

Page 782

Human Nature and Destiny of Jainism 31 opening lines of his sambodhasattari says: "No matter whether he is a Svetämbara or a Digambara, a Buddhist or a follower of any other creed, one who has reached the self sameness of the soul. i.e., looks on all creatures as his own self, attains salvation."
The Jainas are not opposed to the caste system, which they try to relate to character. "By one's actions one becomes a Brahmana or a Ksatriya, or a Vaisya, or a Sudra...... Him who is exempt from all karmas we call a Brahmana." "48 "The Jains and the Buddhists use the word Brahmin as a honorific title, applying it even to persons who did not belong to the caste of Brahmana." The exclusiveness and pride born of caste are condemned by the Jainas. The Sütrakṛtänga denounces the pride of birth as one of the eight kinds of pride by which man commits sin. The Jain Sangha, or community, is fourfold, containing monks and nuns, lay-brothers and lay-sisters. With the Buddhists the lay-members were not organically connected with the clergy. With a smaller constituency than that of Buddhism, with no missionary zeal, Jainism has survived in India, while Buddhism has passed away. Mrs. Stevenson offers an explanation for this fact. "The character of Jainas was such as to enable it to throw out tentacles to help it in its hour of need. It had never, like Buddhism, cut itself off from the faith that surrounded it, for it had always employed Brahmins as its domestic chaplains, who presided at its birth rites, and often acted as officiants at its death and marriage caremonies and temple worship. Then, too, amongst its chief heroes it had found niches for some of the favourites of the Hindu pantheon, Räma. Krisna and the like. Mahāvīras genius for organisation also stood Jainism in good stead now, for he had made the laity an integral part of the community, whereas in Buddhism they had no part nor lot in the order. So, when storms of presecution swept over the land, Jainism simply took refuge in Hinduism, which opened its capacious bosom to receive it; and to the conquerors it seemed an indistinguishable part of that great system."50 Further Dr. Radhakrishnan observes that the materialist view of Karma leads to the Jains to attribute more importance than the Buddhists, to the outer act in contrast to the inner motive. Both Buddhism and Jainism admit the ideal of negation of life and personality. To both life is a calamity to be avoided at all costs. They require us to free ourselves from all the ties that bind us to nature and bring us sorrow. They glorify poverty and purity, peace and patient suffering. Hopkins caricatures the Jaina system when he calls it, "a religion in which the chief points insisted upon are that one should deny God, worship man and nourish vermin." The remarkable resemblance between Jainism and Buddhism, in their ethical aspects, is due to the fact that they both borrow from the same Brahmanical sources. "The Brahmin ascetic was the model from which they borrowed many important practices and institutions of ascetic life."
The concept of Moksa in Jainism is nothing but a ceaseless quest for purification, enlightenment and omniscience. Nirvana or deliverance is not annihilation of the soul, but its purity into a blessedness that has no end. It is an escape from the body, though not from existence. "The liberated is not long
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