Harmless Soul

Author(s): W J Johnson, Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 95

Conclusions 81 proliferation of doctrines to do with karma and bondage, and, on the other, ensures that no complete systematization is possible.
As has been made clear, in the very earliest texts, where there is effectively no alternative to extreme asceticism other than a bad rebirth, there is no need for doctrine to be worked out in any great detail. From the ascetic point of view, which is the 'Jain' point of view at this stage (the earliest texts were composed by and for ascetics), the chance of a lay person attaining a heavenly rebirth is considered so remote as to be practically impossible. Proliferation of heavens and hells tends to occur only when a system becomes concerned with something more than simple liberation, i.e. when it acquires a lay doctrine. And only then do ideas like that of śubha yoga leading to punya karma become intelligible. (When the path to liberation is as demanding as the Jain one, ascetics too, of course, become interested in the higher samsāric worlds.)
Given the basic teachings of early Jainism on the multiplicity of jīvas, ahimsā, and the bondage of material karma, then the ascetic's path is theoretically very clear: he or she must give up all harming activity. Whether this in effect means all activity, or whether there is a distinction between activity of different kinds, is not clear from the earliest texts. It is probably taken for granted that in this context any action which harms jīvas is meant, and thus potentially, at the very least, any physical activity is harmful.
There is, therefore, a sense in which, beyond a few normative teachings of early Jainism, all doctrinal elaboration is aimed at a lay audience, both to justify their position as laity and to put them on the soteriological 'ladder'. This is reflected by the fact that doctrines concerning the internalization of significant action, which if carried to their logical conclusion might be thought to undermine, or even be fatal to ascetic practice, actually make no difference to the ways in which monks and nuns behave. They go on acting as though the overwhelmingly