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delauchery, adultery, hunting and stealing and all sorts of vices which lead to a life in hell. To become a perfect Jaina one shculd observe all these prescirptions and restraints. Moreover, he should control anger by forgiveness, vanity by humility and fraud by straight-forwardness.
He laid emphasis on chastity. He said : "One who is a slave to lust forfeits tuman life". He prea. ched nudity, as he observed nudity leads to abhorrence of lust. Moreover, nudity was a natural state as people were born nude and as they would go naked after death.
Jainism is international and universal in character. It is a fundamental mistake to regard Jainism as the religion of any one particular caste or community. Shorn of ritual which it has imbibed from its neighbour-Hinduism, it is a religion of Yoga meaning realization (atmadarśana), constant awareness of the self at all times and at all places. Being the primitive faith of all mankind it has its door open to all living beings. All ritual is but a prescription for the cure of physical and mental ills of suffering humanity. The conquest of suffering by annihilating Karma can be achieved by other means too but the means laid down in the Jaina Code of Morals and Religion are far superior as they hold out the promise of achieving the goal in the simplest and the easiest possible manner.
Jaina Philosophy is much anterior to Vedānta and other systems of thought. Jainism is an original system quite distinct and independent from all others. But in spite of its individual traits, it possesses. certain characteristics common with Hindu traits. For instance, in Vedānta Brahman is not said to possess existence, intellect, joy (sat, cit, ananda) as qualities of his nature but he is existence, intellect and joy itself. Similarly, the Jaina metaphysics treats merits and demerits as substratums rather than as qualities.
The atomic theory which is absent in the Vedānta, Sankhya and Yoga systems of Hindu throught but has found its way in the Vaišeşika and Nyāya makes an integral part of the Jainas and Ajivikas.
The greatest contribution that Jainism has made to the field of Philosophy is their theory of Syädvāda or Anekāntavāda which declares that everything in the universe is related to everything. This assertion reconciles the opposites or the contraries and is the true characteristic of Jaina philosophical thought. In fact and indeed we cannot ignore the variety of things and their relations and say that the side of the sword that faces us is the all-in-all of the shield. Our mode of looking at a thing must take into account the multifarious variables with every change in time and space.
Being purely indigeneous and the earliest religious system of civilized man, Jainism has endured many hardships and persecutions, yet it has survived to the present day. From its very beginning it has been acting and reacting on all religious systems it came in contact with and influencing human thought and culture. Its contributions to Indian Culture and civilization are by no means small. It has the noblest and the most practical message of peace and good will. It aims at universal brotherhood, bliss and happiness for the world at large.
आचार्यरत्न श्री देशभूषण जी महाराज अभिनन्दन अन्य
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