Basic Jain Culture Non Possession

Author(s): Padamchand Shastri, N L Jain
Publisher: Veer Seva Mandir Trust

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Perspiration, (12)Fatigue, (13) Pride, (14) Indulgence, (15) Surprise, (16) Sleep, (17) Birth and (18) Restlessness.
'Jambudvipa-prajnapjti' (Enunciction on Jambudvipa) and 'Dravya Sangraha' (Compendium on Realities) commentary etc. have also elaborated these defects. All these are 'possessions' because they do not belong to the nature of self and they obscure the infinite potency of soul.
Here we are discussing the 'non-possession'as admitted by the Jains in which Jainness resides, lives and pervades. The tendency of being a Jain, despite appreciation of possessions, is just like assuming a dead as alive by pumping air into it. The dead body may swell due to air pumping, it may be shaking also, but this does not indicate its livingness. It is merely a mattergic activity. Similarly, the external or alien activities of the Jiva, aware of appreciation of possession, are not indicators of Jainness. This is because all the Jainness is involved in minimisation or devoidance of possession whether it is included in non-violence, truth and non-stealing etc. If there is no sense about the origin of non-violence in non-possession, they are not worth observance. Here, the sense of the term 'non-possession' refers to (1) Leaning of passions like attachment and aversion, (2) Limitation of external accumulations and (3) Renunciation etc. It must also be noted that our vows and religious activities are meaningful only when they nourish non-possession through volitions and activities having a nature of non-possession.
We have been making mistake to assume Jain-ness in showing observance of vows and other rituals and foregoing the relationship with non-possession. Currently, every man of the country is suffering and that too either due to excess or absence of possessions. All the propensities of violence etc. are due to possessions and their growth. It is also surprising that the government has also not recognised the growth of possessions as an offence. Just as in the Indian penal code, there is prescribed penalisation for violence, falsity, stealing and illicit