Concept of Paryaya in Jain Philosophy

Author(s): S R Bhatt, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 42

Spiritual and Material Significance of the Concept of Paryaya Priya Jain Man is a rational animal and co-exists with other creatures sometimes in harmony and at most times in disharmony. When he follows his instincts blindly, he falls in the pitfalls created by him, laid in the form of ignorance, delusion, passion, etc. and finds himself trapped in the wheel of transmigration undergoing endless trials and causing tumults and tribulations in his surroundings. But again it has been proved that who-so-ever used the gift of his superior intellect and wisdom realised the multi-faceted reality and translated it to mankind in different places and contexts. The seer and the knower rationalized his ephemeral conditioning and sought the instruments of significant and worthy living. One branch of this significant search gave birth to 'Philosophy which in its etymological sense means 'love of knowledge', knowledge not for money, fame, power or for the transient pleasures but knowledge for knowledge's sake and for self-realisation and spiritual perfection, which is and should be the ultimate aim of all kinds of study. But somewhere in the course of journey, man loses sight of this ultimate truth and continues to gather and reserve the information, just as artificial intelligence is stored in great magnitude in the computers of today. Just as the computer cannot benefit from the knowledge stored within it, man also is least able to help himself with the knowledge propounded by the wise and the virtuous if he continues to be allured by the fleeting, ephemeral carnal pleasures of the material world (para-paryaya).