________________
FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS
131
gods at all; and Lokottara mithyātva, which includes all forms of spiritual bribery, such as the offering of vows to various Jaina saints or gurus for the fulfilment of the wor. shipper's wishes. Under this it is even forbidden to pray for a child's recovery from sickness! It is also accounted a sin, though a venial one, if a Jaina woman, for instance, promises in the event of a son being granted to her to give a cradle to a temple, or to donate money to a sādhu, or that her husband will feed their caste fellows; for the Jaina say that they should never give alms with any object save that of aiding themselves on the journey to mokşa, and should be careful not to import into their religion the practices of an alien faith. Two other branches of the sin of false faith are such as might prevent conversion to Jainism: the obstinate holding of a belief, when the holder is convinced it is false (Abhigrahika mithyātva); and the resting content in a state of ignorance, when there is an opportunity of striving to learn (Ajñāna mithyātva). Other sins included under this head consist in lack of reverence towards sacred things : for instance, he who fails to pay the honour due to a guru or a god is guilty of Avinaya mithyātva; and a man who enters a temple wearing his shoes, or chewing betel-nut, or who spits in the temple precincts, is guilty of Aśātanā mithyātva. The last of these twenty-five which we need enumerate is Anabhigrahika mithyātva, the sin which any Jaina would commit who, for example, became a theosophist, or came to regard all religions as true and all their founders and apostles as equally worthy of reverence and belief.
Such are some of the faults which are included under this sin of false faith, the last on the list of the eighteen kinds of sin. Such a list is in itself enough to justify the claim of the Jaina that the philosophy of their faith is an ethical philosophy; but to Western eyes it seems no
1 The intelligent Jaina clearly recognize that Hinduism has a very great influence over the religious ideas and practices of the less instructed members of their community. 2 Otherwise Anabhi grahitva.
K2
