History of Jaina Monachism

Author(s): S B Deo
Publisher: Deccan College Research Institute

Page 10

HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
bujjhihii, muccihii, parinivvähii, savvadukkhāņaṁ antam karehii' (will attain to, will be enlightened, will be freed and will put an end to all miseries.) 24
It is, therefore, an aim "for which nudity, tonsure and celibacy are practised; for which no bath is taken, no umbrella is used and no shoes are put on; for which one sleeps on the ground or on a plank of wood; for which one begs food from house to house not minding abuse or praise, the condemnation, scandal, beatings, the twenty two troubles (parisahā) and the pranks of the wicked."28
The Brahmanical Mokşa:
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The Brahmanical conception of moksa has a very long history of evolution and development.
In the Vedic period there is revealed a marked absence of the idea of moksa, though the word 'amṛta' may be said to be connected with that
idea.
It is only in the Upanisadic period that we come across an exuberance of phraseology describing mokşa as even the Bramaņas fail to do so. Brhadaranyaka20 Upanisad seems to express the idea as "beholding this self as the Lord of all that is and will be." When one gets this realisation of the identity of the individual soul with the Universal soul, then one need not be afraid of anything as he has known 'the soundless, the intangible....the eternal....the unchangeable." Thus the Upanishads may be said to present the phenomenon of liberation as the consciousness of the knowledge of the identity of the individual soul with the Absolute.
The Bhagawadgitä reveals different aspects of liberation inasmuch as it presents the idea as freedom from evil action (aśubhät karmät), the destruction of desire and passion (kāmakrodhaviyukta), release from old age and death (jarāmarana), and liberation from the pairs of opposite known as pleasure and pain (dvandvairvimuktāḥ sukhadukhasamdnyaih).28
The conception of liberation, however, flowered into a variety of facets with different Brähmanical schools. Cārvāka held it to be absolute freedom (swatantrya). The Sänkhyas held it to be the realisation of prakrti and puruşa (prakṛtipurusavivekaḥ muktiḥ), while the Advaitins explained it as the keeping aloof from avidyä (ignorance).29
24 Vivaga, p. 51; also Vim, 20, 5-6.
25. Antagaḍa. p. 29.
26. IV. IV. 13, 15: quoted in ERE, Vol. 8, p. 771.
27. Katha Upanisad quoted in ERE, Vol. 8, p. 771.
28. 4, 16; 5, 26; 7, 29; 15, 5.
29. Sarvadarśanakaumudi, Triv. Skt. Series, No. CXXXV, (1938) pp. 137, 141.