________________
84
Dr. Charlotte Krause : Her Life & Literature
his human body as long as the neutral rest of his Karmas force him to keep it. He is man, and, as one part of Jaina tradition, that of the Śvetāmbara branch, so beautifully suggests, has to satisfy the requirements of his human body : he begs his food, and he eats and drinks, within the limits prescribed for a monk, since the rest of his Karmas require him to do so. And the rest of his Karmas also require him to live exclusively for the benefit of the world, i.e., of those souls that are still in the bonds of dangerous Karmas. For as long as he lives in his human shape, he goes about, showing to the whole of creation, the right path, by preaching and teaching, and by the example of his own model life. And it is obvious that the activity and life of the Perfect One must indeed turn out to be a blessing, for he cannot but attract crowds of followers and imitators.
This is what the Jaina worships as his highest religious ideal, his ‘god’, if one chooses to say so. He adorns his statue with pearls and diamonds, with roses and jasmine, and costly champak flowers, he fans it, as one fans a great king, with white chowries, he burns sweet frankincense before it, and builds beautiful temples over it, beautiful and costly as fairy palaces, and he takes it round the city in gorgeous processions, on golden cars, followed by crowds of singing women in gay-coloured, gold-glittering sarees : still he knows that his god dwells high beyond all this, and that all this bhakti, or pious service, is nothing but an expression of his own admiration for his chosen ideal, and a kind of expedient to bring it closer before his eyes and the eyes of the world, both of whom are pretty well in need of it.
Jinahood shares the quality of all ideals, to be, in spite of - or perhaps just on account of — its undiminished and undiminishable attractiveness — high above the bodily and mental standards of its admirers and imitators. And ever Jaina-monkhood, its reflection on the rough mirror of actual life, is high above the standard of average man, and will — owing to the diversity of human dispositions, - always remain restricted to a few privileged individuals,
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
