Basic Jain Culture Non Possession

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

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who profess to be Jains, neither the 'Jinas' will leave them, nor the Jain will leave the Jinas. They are Jinas because of withdrawl from possessions of delusion and attachment etc. and their religion will be restricted in them. Further, whosoever continues to become a Jina, his religion will continue to grow as 'Jain'. This point belongs to a high level of spiritualism. Let us leave it here.
Currently, we mean 'Jain' as a religion propounded by the Jinas and which could lead the living beings to get release from worldly suffering and make them 'Jina' or to acquire the supreme bliss of salvation. This religion has such a magnanimity that whosoever adopts it, becomes 'Jina' or 'Jain'. It is stated that he is a condemned richman who does not make his sub-ordinates as equal to himself.
The current practical definitions of non-violence, truth, non-stealing and celibacy are colloidal. One could be a true worldly human being if these are modified or refined. The old tradition of their refined definition has been able, by now, to keep the society and nation intact. Undoubtedly, neither the society nor this country would have been saved and preserved without these moral laws. The worldly peace and pleasures are also based on these laws. That is why, the various Indian dogmatic systems have emphasized these laws so that the man may become man and should live with peace and pleasure.
However, the vision of the Jain ford-builders reached a higher level of paraworldly or superworldly pleasures. They showed the path ofeternal world of salvation. Their path has the capacity to enjoy both the worlds. The path is to become Jain from human being and later to be'Jina' from Jain or to detach one-self completely from attachments and possessions. It means that when one forsakes coarse violence, falsity, stealth and illicit sex, one can become a human being and when one undertakes limitation of possessions or gradually forgoes them, he can become a Jain. The description of ten religious duties in Jainism has an objective of accomplishment of forsaking the possession in