Essence of Jainism

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

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Essence of Jainism
Is this clement without a beginning or born of some cause sometime? Again, are the so many elements appearing as Aham basically different, one from the other or they are the creation of some other basic element? If these live elements differ from each other, are they subject to change or they are firm and steady? Have these elements an end or they are endless from the viewpoint of time? Again, are these elements limited by body all-pervasive or limited?
These and so many similar questions arose in the realm of philosophical thinking. Answers to these or some of these questions are found differently in the history of the philosophical thinking of different races. Right from old days Greek thinkers started ana. lysing these questions. Their thinking developed in a variety of ways and it has a very important place in western philosophy. Centuries before the Greek thinkers, the thinkers of Aryavarta made several efforts to find answers to these questions. Its history is clear before us.
Brief classification of Answers
Each question is answered in different ways by the different Aryan thinkers and there are countless branches of controversies here. We can yet classify the answers in brief as follows:
One spring of thought looked upon the external universe as born. It yet stressed its refusal to the universe so born as being completely new. It stated that just as butter is hidden in milk and at times reveals itself, this gross universe only continues to reveal itself from some subtle cause while that original cause is self-dependent and without a beginning.
Another spring of thought believed that this external universe is not born of any one cause. It has several different causes by its very nature and even in these causes the universe does not lie hidden as butter in milk. This external world is created entirely anew from the synthesis and analysis of different types of original causes. The first being Pariṇāmavādi and the second Karyavādi. Both these streams of thought differ in their views regarding the birth or revelation of the external universe, but they generally