International Jain Conference 1985 3rd Conference

Author(s): Satish Jain, Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Ahimsa International

Page 235

Svaraj In Ideas In Jainism
Shri Gyan Chand Biltiwala
Mahatama Gandhi wrote in Hind Svaraj' in 1909. It prescribed India's political freedom. Krishan Chandra Bhattacharya wrote 'Svaraj in Ideas' in 1923 and called for the country's cultural and intellectual freedom. Political freedom India achieved in 1947. Its cultural and intellectual freedom is a desideratum yet.
Gandhi and Bhattacharya talked of freedom at national and community level. Jainism talks of freedom, Moksha, Svaraj at all levels, individual as well as collective. Its collective aspect encompasses the whole mankind and even goes beyond to all sentient beings. Individual aspect is its major concern, as the ultimate Moksha from Samsara is purely an individual phenomenon, and the journey to that end is also individual.
Individual is constantly engaged in the process of give and take of ideas with others. Idea is a great force. When it is lived with conviction it transforms the whole personality of the individual. All our miseries have their roots in foolish ideas, and there is no panacea other than Samyakinana. So vital to our present and future in this life and afterwards is our world of ideas that we cannot overstress the caution against all complacency. Deceptive ideas arising in us of their own, coming to us from our family, region, country, cultural tradition, religious sect etc. must be rejected outright. There is no poison deadlier.
Desire to live a happy, healthy, free life is not, unfortunately, everyone's lot. Mostly, people feel cosy in their nest of deceptive ideas. They do not want to come out of it. They love their chains. The brave ones only dare examine and root out the false ideas.
How to test that an idea is liberating? In short, the idea which does not insult the sovereignty of the individual and which puts all the apparently low and high on the same footing is liberating. Again, the idea which cleanses the individual of his impurities and fills him with joy and mutual respect is liberating.
A lover of Svaraj in ideas is Anekantic in outlook. He tries to understand others' point of view. Even the idea playing havoc in other's life is washed of its Ekantic view and then it shines as one aspect of the truth. Imbued with