Basic Principles Of Jainism

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

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of new karmas. It is the foundation of good character. With self-restraint one can attain mastery over oneself and control all passions.
Restraint in thoughts, speech and action is self-restraint that is the basis of pure life and of religion. It is difficult to attain self-restraint. It requires faith in religion or at least in ethical conduct: if this is backed up by the company of good people or fine moral traditions at home and in the immediate surroundings, then acquisition of self-restraint becomes easy. Today we notice that we are in the midst of a society where laxity in thought and action is the order of the day. Anyone who advocates self-control in life is ridiculed as an orthodox person. The values seem to have changed because everyone seems to have love for free life. It cannot be denied that Indian culture has always emphasized that self-restraint is essential to prevent inroads of other people into the peaceful life. If tendency towards free life is not restrained in time, one is likely to drift towards a life of ease and sensual pleasures. Cultivation of self-restraint then becomes impossibility.
To give up oneself to such life is to lose the dignity of human personality and greatness. The mind becomes overwhelmed with passionate thoughts and loses all its strength. It then becomes impossible to regain balance of thought and purity of conduct. An individual who becomes a victim of such situation will never be able to subdue his mind and subdue the evil karmas which entangle him into a life of misery and continued transmigration. In that event, one cannot regain the chance of human birth which is the only opportunity for destruction of bad and good karmas. The pleasures of worldly life are undoubtedly fleeting but no one can predict to what stage of degradation a man might sink before he can awake to his senses. Like an insect which is attracted by a light and embraces it only to fall down dead, a person who is attracted to a life of sensual enjoyment emerges physically and morally bankrupt.
Renunciation in a lesser or greater degree is the beginning of self-restrain. The world is full of objects of glamour to the different senses and it is only the person who is constantly conscious of the dangers of licentious life that can control him from a fall. It is constant awareness to the pitfalls of life that can ever keep an individual vigilant on the path of righteousness. Without self-restraint, an individual will be blindly sacrificing his good fortune of having been born a human being and lose an invaluable gem of life for a piece of glowing glass. Without self-restraint, the intellect and the body will not work to achieve the spiritual advancement even in the slowest possible manner.
It is axiomatic that without full control of thought and mind, one cannot achieve real renunciation. Austerities, fasts and penance are futile without the internal purity. Introspection and repentance accompanied by right conduct rooted in right faith and knowledge can alone help the soul to become free from the karmas of different kinds. 7) Uttama Tapas or Supreme Austerity
Practice of penance in order to destroy the accumulated karmas is austerity. External austerities are the twelve kinds while the internal austerities are of six kinds. According to Umasvami, the external austerities are: fasting, reduction of diet, restrictions on begging food, abstinence from delicious and stimulating foods or dishes, lonely habitation and mortification of
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