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caused by others or internal i.e. self inflicted. The task gets complicated as almost all Indian religions believe in the doctrine of rebirth, soul, delusion and attachment as the causes of pain and sorrow. We will utilize the unique features of Jainism for these values and see their impact on Gandhi's thought first and then the events as they occurred in his journey from Mohan Das to Mahatma. Some unique features of Jainism are briefly mentioned below:
Definition of Sat: Reality / Truth is defined as an entity with origination-destruction and permanence i.e. with momentary/ impermanent as well as permanent states of the same and as real | existent giving rise to the Dvait / duality of existents as reality.
Concept of God: God is Omnipresent-potent, the creator, benefactor and referred as Sat-chit-ananda in most of the Indian and theistic religions. In Jainism these are the attributes of independent pure soul residing in each living being but defiled due to karmic impurities. This implies Jains believe in infinite independent living beings, each with its own independent eternal soul and not just one God who is the source of all that exists. This leads to the Jain belief of self effort (Shram) through the activism of soul to achieve one's worldly and spiritual objectives even to attain the state of pure soul or unto Godhood. This implies spiritual or religious activism as well in Jainism asking us to develop an attitude of detachment (Vitaragata) from worldly objects and non-self thoughts. Another major aspect of ethics is the concept of i.e. confession or condemnation of wrong acts/thoughts (Pratikraman), and seeking punishment to rectify the wrongs (prayashchitta) and promising not to repeat them in future.
Doctrine of Karma: As you sow so shall you reap makes every living being responsible for their actions and the results thereof.
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