Introduction to Jaina Sadhna

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 11

4: An Introduction to Jaina Sādhanā
if we presume that in their attempt to clear off the dirt of Vedic ritualism, Jainism and Buddhism remained intact. They were also influenced by Vedic rituals considerably. Ritualism in the new form of Tantrika rituals crept into Jainism and Buddhism and became part and parcel of their religious practices and mode of worship. With the impact of Hindu Tantrism, Jainas as well as Buddhists adopted various Hindu deities and their mode of worship with some variations, which suited to their religious temperament but were alien to it in its pure form. Jaina concept of Śāsanadevatās or Yakṣa-Yakṣis is nothing but only a Jaina version of Hindu deities. As I have pointed out earlier, the influence has been reciprocal. This can be discerned from the fact that on the one side Hinduism, accepted Rṣabha and Buddha as incarnation of God, while, on the other, Jainism included Rāma and Krsna in its list of Salākā-Puruṣas. A number of Hindu gods and goddesses were accepted as consorts of Tirthankaras such as Kāli, Mahākāli, Cakreśvari, Ambikā, Padmavati and Siddhika and some others as independent deities such as Sarasvati and Lakṣmi. The moot point, I intend to come to, is that different religious traditions of our great Indian Culture have borrowed various concepts from one another. It is the duty of the scholars to study and highlight this mutual impact which is the need of the hour and thus to bridge the gulf that exists between different religious systems due to the ignorance of their interactions and the history of mutual impacts. Though it is true that Śramanic tradition in general and Jainism and Buddhism in particular have some distinct features, discriminating them from the early Vedic or Brahmanic tradition, yet they are not alien faiths. They are the children of the same soil, and they came forward with a bold reformative spirit. It would be a great mistake if we consider that Jainism and Buddhism were mere a revolt against Brahminism or that they