Essence of Jainism

Author(s): Sukhlal Sanghavi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 63

Essence of Jainism
39
doctrine lays down that every Jiva is the creator of its own world. According to the doctrine, philosophically, every Jiva has the potential of becoming i gvara, and this fact reveals itself at the time of liberation. This godliness itself becomes an object of worship for the common man. The ' gvara acceptable to the Yogaśāstra is also just an object of worship; he is not creator or destroyer. But the Jaina and Yoga vary in their outlook. The isvara accepted by the Yogaśāstra is of a different status than the other Purusas because he is ever liberated; not so the Isvara in the Jain scriptures. The Jain scriptures state that lờvarahood is to be attained to by hard effort and is therefore attainable by all the sadhakas and all liberated Jivas deseive to be worshipped equally as Išvara,
Śrutavidyā and Pramāņavidyā
Śrutavidyā is a truth-aiming collection of the thoughts of all tbe preceding renowned thinkers right from the ancient days and on ones own thoughts based on ones self-experience. Its aim is that no truth abiding thought or line of thought should be disregarded or ignored. That is the reason why thc Jaina Šrutavidya has continued to develop with the development of every new lore. That is the reason why first the Sadadvaita of Samkhya was adopted as Samgrahanaya, but later on the thinking on the non-duality of Brahma-Brahmădvaitavāda found place after the development of the thinking on it. lo the same way, the ancient heory of moment and adopted as Rjusūtranaya. With the development of Mahāyāna thinking, all the four famous Buddhist lines of thought-Vaibhäşika, Sautrāntika, Vijñānavāda and Sūnyavāda were accepted as Rjusūtranaya.
The sphere of non-extremism is so wide and expansive that all worldly and other-worldly lores beneficial to human life find their proper place in it. That is the reason why, in addition to the other-worldly lores, worldly lores bave found place in the Jaina Srautavidya.
In the Promāņavidya, we come across a detailed analysis of all types of knowledge as direct proof, inference, etc., their means and their weakness and strength. There also, non-extremism is