ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 04

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 470

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Applications of Jaina Ethics in Daily Life Issues Dr. Dhayanand Bhargava
Introduction
The Jain life style is respected by the vows, which a householder or a monk adopts. However, beyond this, there are certain others characteristics of Jain life style. While we are dealing with the formal vows for the householders and the monks in separate lessons, in this lesson we propose to deal with such aspects of Jain life style, which do not generally fall within the domain of vows. For this we have to understand some basic concepts.
The Concept of Righteousness
This first point is regarding the concept of righteousness. The Jainas hold that any person should have right attitude towards life. In the first place, this means that he aims at the achievement of right goal. Wealth or health may be necessary for a worldly life but they do not lead to the achievement of Summon Bonum of life. The Summon Bonum of life is self realization. When we have this end in view, certain type of life style follows automatically.
Bad Habits
In the first place, one would avoid the following bad habits.
Drinking
Eating meat
Gambling
Hunting
Theft
Having illicit sexual relations with the wife of others.
SOS OF JAN
It would be clear that these bad habits are hindrance not only in spiritual life but in worldly life also. It is just possible that a person may find that business in wine or meat could bring more money. But even than a Jain is not expected to enter into such business.
A Balanced View
Secondly, Jain attitude towards life is that of non-absolutism. He cannot therefore. Be a fatalist, even through he believes that fate also play its own role. Similarly, he believes that one should help each other in social as well as spiritual life, but he should not be dependent on other for his success, because success depends mainly on one's own efforts. The role of others and circumstances is only marginal. A Jain should, therefore, be independent. This concept of independent leads to the belief that no external super - natural entity like God interferes in our life, even through devotion to perfected souls brings about purity.
Dignity of Labour
Thirdly, as the Jains believe in exertion (shram) they are called shramanas. It implies that whatever is not in our hand is of little significance. For example, the birth if a person is not in his own hands. Therefore, a person is to be judged not by birth but by his action. Looking down upon any person, because he is born in a so-called low family, is not permissible. Casteism therefore, has no place in Jain view of life. In fact humanity belongs to one caste. In fact the basis of casteism is the profession which one follows. Spiritualism has nothing to do with the profession. Therefore, caste has no role in Jainism as it is pre-dominantly spiritualistic. We know what havoc has been wrought upon by casteism, particularly in our country. The matter of the fact is that socially every profession fulfils one or the other necessity of the social and as such no profession should be considered as inferior.
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Physical labour came to be looked upon in our country. Therefore those who could afford avoiding physical labour did so. They thought themselves to be superior to others. This led to a class struggle. The matter of the fact is that physical labour is not only a social necessity but also an individual necessity. This Jain monk does all physical work by himself. In a society however division of labour should not result in discrimination against those who are given to manual work. Therefore
STUDY NOTES version 4.0