Aspect of Jainology Part 2 Pandita Bechardas Doshi

Author(s): M A Dhaky, Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 419

A. S. Gopani
this viewpoint, based it must be on the axiomatic truth that we all are essentially one and the same.
I begin with this viewpoint because it is the largely shared one, indeed by adherents of several different religions. However, the Jaina viewpoint also, and equally, is capable of explaining the whole phenomenon of existence in the same convincing manner. According to the Jainistic standpoint, the Law of Karma is inexorable and ruthless in its operation. However, one must not desert duty towards his fellowmen by simply saying that an individaal gets what he is destined to get according to his own past karmas. No religion denies, much less Jainism, to cultivate virtues as far and as much as is possible. It is the Jaina dictum that, as a category, the individual soul, as self and substance, is identical with every other being's soul. The difference that divides one being from the other is the Karmic covering-enveloping the soul of each individual. Thus do we see disparity between the more universally accepted view of God and the Jaina view of the individual self as a noumenonal being. However, underlying this disparity, there is basic unity which makes it obligatory for everyone to perform his duty towards others and subject onself to discipline which strengthens the foundation and structure of the whole social edifice. Compassion, in this case, has its own role to play. This can be carried out only if the body, which is the main vehicle, has "operational worthiness" and is in good order. This implies maintenance of its fitness, not for comforts and pleasures but for effectively meeting with the responsibilities towards society, that is to say, to fellow beings. The ultimate consequence of the basic logic of all the religious systems is essentially the same. Verily, no religion can afford to be anti-social.
Jainism advocates suspension of aliment unto death when one finds that one's continuing practically has no usefulness either for himself or for the society. This can also be interpreted to mean that the body is for others as much as for one's own self. There can, then, be no other justification worth the name. But let me also warn against equating Jaina's voluntary disintegration with suicide which is solely negative and self-destructive. If the ethical grounds of this Jaina practice are called into question, one would also want an answer why the Siddha Yog's of the Brahmanical religious systems also follow it in their own way of course. They too wound up their mortal coil when they notice that their mission on this plane is over.
The innermost secret of any religion, and for that matter that of Jainism, cannot be comprehended through sense-organs, nor can it be reached by intelect and mind. Its total perception is possible only after “realisation": which is why we find that the "seers”,-the Rşis and Arhatas,-of all religious systems preached Law only after attaining realization of the “Ultimate Truth” or “Ultimate Reality”, whatever its nature may be. Assuredly, perfection in preaching is in no other way possible as human inperfections block the right perception.
: