Introducing Jainism

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 17

INTRODUCING JAINISM
and the Truth, he may not go to the other stages of his life. From this state, a man passes into the garhapatya stage where his first duty is to get married in order to fulfil certain rites. According to the Vedic people, a man comes to the world to pay in course of his life, three debts (mas), viz, deva, pitand rşi. 16 He pays deva-mņa (debt to the gods) by worship, service and doing good duties; his pitr-iņa (debt to the Fathers) is paid by marriage and thereby he leads the life of a householder and continues the race by raising a family; rși-ma (debt to the Sages) can only be paid by studying and learning, by discussing the old learning and by extending its bounds by further additions. It would be a great achievement, if a man could pay all these three debts in one life. In the third stage, known as Vanaprasthya, a man seeks to get rid of the encumbrances of worldly existence. In the last stage (sannyāsa), he renounces altogether the mundane happiness. It should be noted that this system of catur āśrama was adopted in the Jaina system sometime in the 10th cent. A.D. It will be discussed later on. In performing four stages of life, mind has been given a prominent place, and to control mind from various aspects of life, several paths have been suggested. After a full-fledged control over mind, a man with a thorough knowledge of self (ātma-tattva) can enter into the path of Realization (mokşa-mārga) by following some measures of ethical principles (niti-tattva). It is in this connection that the question of caturvargadharma, artha, kāma and mokşa-are related. Without going into details about all these things, the fundamental issues of the Vedic people can be summed up in the following ways. In the Vedic period there developed
i) a belief in an unseen Reality arrived at either
a) by Intuitive Faith, or · b) by Intellectual Ratiocination, or
c) by Reason and Faith both.
16. jāyamāno vai brāhmaṇas tribhir mavā jāyate, bruhmacaryeņa
rşibhyo, yajñena devebhyaḥ, prajayā pitsbhyaḥ, eşa vā anrņo yah putro yajvā brahmacārivāsi (Taittiriya-Samhitä, VI. 3.10.5).