Basic Principles Of Jainism

Author(s): Narayan Lal Kachhara
Publisher: Narayan Lal Kachhara

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The bad passions or the bad thought-paints are black, blue and grey while those of the good thoughts are yellow, pink and white. The bad thought paints are intense, more intense, or most intense. Similarly the good ones are mild, milder or mildest. By the decrease or increase in the intensity of the bad thought activity or passions, the thought-paint becomes modified through grey, blue and black. By the increase of the purity of the soul or good thoughts, the progress is through yellow, pink and white. It is thus clear that while the worst thought activity is black, the highest purity will disclose white.
Nemichandra Siddhanta Chakravarti has given a very illuminating example of the different thought- paints occasioned by the activities of the mind. Six travelers miss their way in the central part of a forest and see a tree laden with fruits. Naturally they have a desire to eat the fruits. The first one wants to uproot the entire tree and eat the fruits; he is actuated by black thought paint. The second one wants to cut the trunk and eat the fruit; he is actuated by blue thought-paint. The third wishes to cut the branches and eat the fruits; he is actuated by the grey thought paint. These three intended to cause great harm to the tree to get its fruits, though in differing degrees. The remaining were better types of individuals who desired to have their object fulfilled without destroying the generating parts of the tree. The fourth one wanted to cut the twigs that had fruits; he is of yellow thought-paint. The next one wanted to pluck the fruits only and eat them; he has got pink thought-paint. The last man wanted to eat only the fruits that had fallen down. He did not want to do any harm to the tree and he was therefore the best man with white thought-paint.
The different thought paints thus exhibit the inner activity of the mind showing that the means to be employed to achieve the ends vary with the mental and moral characteristic of each individual. What then are the characteristics of a person with black thought-paint? He is wrathful, always hostile, wicked, violent, unmindful of the consequences of injuring six kinds of living beings, devoid of piety and compassion, uncontrollable, unprincipled, lacking in common-sense, unskillful, given to sensual pleasures, proud, deceitful, mischievous, lazy and mysterious. The person with the blue thought-paint is extremely mysterious. He is extremely sleepy and deceitful, ignorant, rude, wicked, careless, intensely greedy towards worldly possessions and riches, engaged in sinful undertakings and easily irritable. The person with the grey thought-paint is irritable by temperament, talks ill of others, boastful, troublesome, morose, frightful by nature, envious, insults others, crooked, vile, heretical, jealous, dishonest, distrustful, indifferent, vainglorious, unmindful of loss to others, desires to die on the battlefield, generous to flattery and indiscreet in his actions.
The person with the yellow though-paint knows what to do or not to do, dutiful, steady, knows what is fit or unfit for enjoyment, is free from anger, pride, deceit and greed. Selfcontrolled, impartial, compassionate, charitable, calm and gentle. Gentler qualities characterize the person with pink or red thought-paint: charitable, kind, benevolent, ever ready to do well to others, humble, steadfast, well disciplined, restrained, forbearing, devoted to saints and teachers and strives after the highest good. The person with the white though-paint is impartial, engages
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