Hajarimalmuni Smruti Granth

Author(s): Shobhachad Bharilla
Publisher: Hajarimalmuni Smruti Granth Prakashan Samiti Byavar

Page 961

Dr. Nathmal Tatia Director, Research Institute of Prakrit, Jainology and Ahimsa, Vaishali, Muzaffarpur. A SURVEY OF JAINA RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
So far as tradition preserved in the Jaina Āgamas is concerned, Jainism is to be traced to prehistoric times for its origin. To be precise, Jainism as a religious movement and philosophical attitude is undatable. In this respect, it is on a par with Vedic religion. It has been shown with overwhelming weight of evidence by Shrimat Anirvānaji in his Vedamināmsā, recently published, that there were free thinkers contemporaneously with the Risis of the Samhitās, who did not profess allegiance to the religion of sacrifice. Whatever that may be, Jainism, Buddhism and other protestant creeds took distinctive shape and structure several centuries before the Christian era, and this does not admit of dispute. Vardhamana Mahāvira was the elder contemporary of Gautama Buddha. Pärsvanatha, the immediately precedent
Tirthankara, is admitted on all hands to have been a historical figure. Mahavira's family was attached to the creed of Pärśvanātha. There are evidences in the Jaina Āgama that Mahāvira succeeded in winning over the followers of Pārsvanatha to his reformed church. Mahavira consolidated the monastic order as well as the lay community on strictly regulated code of religious observances. This explains the survival of the Jaina religion, though Buddhism disappeared from the land of its birth after the Muslim conquest in the 13th century. This is in a nutshell the historical background of Jaina religion and philosophy. The division of the Jaina church into Svetāmbara and Digambara schools is believed to have taken place at the time of Bhadrabahu who was a contemporary of Chandragupta Maurya. The points of agreement between the schools are overwhelming and those of difference are rather matters of detailed observance. There are some credal divergences such as the problem whether a woman is capable of achieving final emancipation (mokşa), and such other minor issues which may be slurred over by dispassionate students of Jainism as bagatelle. In philosophy and ethics, there is enormous unanimity. The following are the cardinal doctrines of Jainism. 1. Soul and God :
The Jaina believes in the immortality of the individual soul which does not owe its origin to a Personal Creator or combination of natural forces. Jainism is frankly dualistic in so far as it distinguishes Spirit from matter. Both of them have parallel existence. The soul is bound in meshes of matter and its freedom from matter constitutes final emancipation liberty. The soul
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