Basic Jain Culture Non Possession

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

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toto. The remaining nine duties are just complementary to nonpossession. It has been stated that the duties of (i) Forgiveness, (ii) Modesty, (iii) Straightforwardness, (iv) (external and internal) purity (these four refer to forgoing four passions of anger, pride, deceit and greed), (v) Truth, (vi) Restraint, (vii) Austerities, (viii) Renunciation are the methods while (a) Celibacy and (b) non-possession are the effects. These ten religious duties are the most excellent.
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When the mind is cast in volitions of forgiveness, modesty and straightforwardness through the methods of purity, truth, restraint, austerities and renunciation, the religion of non-possession gets originated alongwith the total celibacy or absorption in self soul. The absorption in self is the crux of being Jina or Jain. To acquire this state, one has to make efforts to get away from karmic influx and apply methods of karmic stoppage and shedding. All these methods are not affirmative, they have withdrawing nature as happens in meditation. Sometimes, we can also call them 'Jina' or 'Jain' who have partial withdrawl from the possessions etc.
'Dhavala' 9.4.1 states that the Jinas have two categories:- (1) Complete or perfect and (2) Partial. The perfect Jinas are those (i) enlightened ones who have destroyed all the four destructive karmas and (ii) the liberated ones who have destroyed all the eight karmas. In contrast, the group leaders or pontiffs, preceptors and sages are called partial Jinas who win over the intensity of passion and senses. Further, we can admit those votaries as partial Jain who undertake the partial renunciation or leaning of possessions as the bliss of salvation is acquired only through leaning or zeroing of possessions whether they
are external or internal ones.
This is the contribution of Jinas that they defined the nature of entity without any absolutism and placed non-possession as a diadem and postulated the vows of non-violence etc. as instruments in developing non-possessiveness. Some days ago, I have received a