Compassion and Passions

Author(s): Jayantilal Jain
Publisher: Jayantilal Jain

Page 1

COMPASSION AND PASSIONS
-
Dr. Jayanti Lal Jain
"I bow to Lord Mahavir who is devoid of blemishes of all passions and in whose pure soul the entire universe is mirror-like reflected"
- Acharya Samantabhadra
The basic instinct of all living beings can be termed as passions and these cause perpetual cycle of deaths and births. Lord Mahavir has preached that those, who have compassion for passions, lead a life of peace in this birth and ultimately achieve Moksha - a state of perpetual and eternal happiness. This concept of passion and compassion has been revealed by Lord Mahavir, having known the living beings of all times and places in the state of omniscience and omnivision. Passions - Passions characterize the life of everyone and even animals have passions of their own. All living beings display passions of likes, dislikes, anger, ego, greed, delusion, moments of happiness and sadness and so on. Generally, passions are classified into four - anger, ego, deceit and greed. These passions may arise in three ways - due to contemplation, preparation and commencement of any activity and carried through with the help of mind, words and body. Further, these passions may be of three types - one's own or supporting the passions of others or getting the passion accomplished by others. These passions sum up to 108 i.e. 4 x 3 x 3 x 3. Passions also relate to violence, falsehood, stealing, possession and sex. Each of these passions can be of many types. Jain scriptures, therefore, talk of 18,000 passions and a more intricate classification of passions refer to control of 8.4 million passions under this five-fold category. Based on the five senses (passions) of touch, taste, smell, seeing and hearing and states of body and mind, living beings are categorized into four - humans, animals and beings in hell and heaven. Depending on types of births, these are further divided into 8.4 million. As each of these types reflect different passions and hence living beings are further divided into 19750 billion. Thus, the passions reflected in these living beings are so many that it is beyond the understanding of an ordinary person. Cause of Passions - Passions of attachment, aversion, friendship, alienation, anger, greed etc. arise from worldly causes, from circumstances relating to body, conduct, act, speech or senses. Taking the body for the soul is the root cause of all passions and miseries. With this false identification, one's ego and other passions are imprisoned in non-living objects and chained in desires of worldly or bodily affairs. Moths die due to passion for light, Deers get caught due to passion for sound, Elephants are overpowered when attracted by touch of she-elephants and Bees have passions for scent. Fishes get caught when lured by the taste of food. These beings are ruined due to their respective dominant passions.
Dynamics of passions over infinite cycle of births and deaths suggest that passions keep generating by the very nature of karmic bondage created by cycle of passions, begetting themselves due to ignorance of the nature of pure soul. The cycle of