Essence of Jainism

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

Page 79

Heart of Jaina Culture
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was no bondage of the stage of the bouseholder, because it did not depend upon the perusal of desires, but their suppression. That is the reason why the follower of Nirvartaka dharma docs not believe that he is bound by all social and religious duties. In bis view, the main duty of an individual is just one and it is to resort to the path of self-realization to the best of his ability and try to annihilate all desires that create an obstruction on it.
Iof uenc« and Leveloppent of Nivartaka Dharma
It seems that Nivartaka dharma was in prevalence in some form or another in some part of the country when the Vedic Aryans, the followers of Pravartaka dharma came to this country for the first time. In the beginning, there was a c'ash between the followers of these two paths. Yet the very few followers of the Nivartoka dharma by their austerity, method of meditation and detached conduct, slowly and steadily influenced the common man in the then society This attracted several followers of Pravartaka dharma to itself, resulting in the development of Nivartaka dharma in so many forms in so many institutions. In the end, the result of all this was that the followers of the Pravartuka dharma who opined originally that the dharma was based on two stages-those of student houd and householder, added boih Vanaprastha and Samnyāsa to its fold. With the rise of so many institutions of Nivartaka dharma and their expanding influence in the society, followers of Pravartaka dharma started proclaiming that the path of renunciation directly from the stage of studenthood and without entering into the stage of the householder was possible, permissible and logical. Thus, there arose a co-ordination of the Pravartaka dharma in life, and its fruit is visible today in the philosophical literature and the life of men of the world.
The seers who were born in the line of the Brahmins who followed the Pravataka dharma and bad still fully adopted the Nivartaka dharma, revealed the great glory of the Nivartaka dharma by their own thinkiog and life. They still approved of the Pravar. taka dharma that was their ancestral wealth together with the