Facets of Jaina Religiousness in Comparative Light

Author(s): L M Joshi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 78

JAINA CONCEPTION OF THE HOLY PENTAD
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In Tāntrika Buddhist texts the institution of the ācārya or guru seems to have acquired a peculiar significance. The guru or acārya initiates the disciple in esoteric theory and practice of yoga and is held in highest esteem by his disciples. One text states that in all the three worlds there is nothing superior to the ācārya. It is stressed that the preceptor should never be insulted even when the disciple has attained siddhi. Tantrika teachers are known as siddhas, vajrācāryas, and gurus.130
The institution of the guru is an important feature of the Nātha school131 and Guru Goraksanātha is often remembered as the most famous guru of yogins of medieval India.
In the Santamata, particularly in the writings of Kabīradāsa, guru occupies a position of singular significance.182 Sometimes, the guru is treated as the very image of God. The Guru-mahatmya is an important and popular text of Kabirapantha. In the Caitanya cult also the guru is venerated as an avatāra of Krsna. Caitanya himself is called the Gurudeva.183 The doctrine of the guru is a fundamental tenet also of Sikhism which has promoted the veneration of a series of ten gurus.134 The Sikh Canon is now generally known as the Gurugranthasāhib which embodies the doctrine of the Gurus (Gurumata). Tulasīdāsa, though accords highest place to the brāhmaṇa, frequently pays homage to the guru as the foremost enlightener. 135 In the different sects of medieval and modern Hinduism the tradition of great reverence for the guru has increased with the passage of time. In contemporary India also we find that the ācārya and the guru are being worshipped even as avatāras. The gurus or ācāryas of medieval and modern India have not been ascetics or sādhus in every case. 136 Many of these gurus are known as santas, they are also called sādhus in the sense of bhaktas. We have thus two traditions of sādhus, that of the ascetics (munis, svāmis, yogins, bhikṣus), and that of the householders often called santas; while the sādhus or the santas of ascetic variety are found associated with Jaina, Buddhist, and Brahmanical Hindu communities, the householder sadhus, usually called santas, are for the most part followers of theistic sects of Hinduism, Kabīrapantha, Sikhism and Rādhāsoāmi sect. These brief notes from comparative religion thus further elucidate the distinctive features of Jaina theory of the sādhu.
130. 131.
132. 133.
See L.M. Joshi, Studies in the Buldhistic Culture of India, second edition, pp. 285-286. See Gorakha-Bānī edited by P.D. Barathwal, Prayaga : Hindi Sahitya Sammelana, 1942, pp. 5, 37, 49, 61, etc.; Siddha-Siddhanta-Paddhati, edited by Kalyani Malik, Poona : Oriental Book House, 1954; Hashayoga-Pradīpikä edited and translated by Srinivasa Iyangar, Adyar : Adyar Library, 1972. See Kabiragranthāvali edited by Shyam Sundar Das, Kasi: Nāgari Pracāraņi Sabhā, 1965 (reprint). See Prabhat Mukerjee, History of the Chaitanya Faith in Orissa, New Delhi : Manohar Publications, 1979. See Nanakacandrodaya-mahakävyam edited by Vrajanatha Jha, Varanasi : Sanskrit University, 1977; W.H. McLeod, Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968. Ramacaritamanasa, opening caupais. See The Nature of Guruship, edited by Clarence O. McMullen, Batala, 1976.
134.
135. 136.